Alex's Wonderland
by Kyonkichi9
Summary: Alex, a tailor in the world of Alice, is mistaken for Alice, and sent on a quest to prove that she is not the Alice that had first come to Wonderland. Soon, it becomes something more than just proving that she is innocent, as she must save Wonderland.
1. Chapter 1

A wall of clouds, stretching towards the heavens was all she could see. It never ended, in all directions, stretching on forever. The only thing that broke it was a window, high up on the wall. An invisible breeze that the girl standing at the bottom of the wall could not feel made blonde hair wave out of the window, clashing with the light pink, purple and blue wall. The girl at the bottom tried to claw her way up the wall, but even though it was made of clouds, it was as smooth as glass, and she couldn't get a proper hold on it. She slid down only after getting up an inch, and then resorted to shouting to try to get the person in the wall's attention.

"Alice! Alice! You need to get to Wonderland, Alice! They are mistaking you for me, Alice! Please! ALICE!" She screamed as loud as she could, looking up at the wall, her neck getting a kink in it because she had to look 90 degrees upwards. The head of blonde hair then looked down at her for a moment, before it was warped into another, different person.

The blonde hair shrunk back, and it turned red as it went. Her hair was then styled upwards; shaping a large heart over her head, as the window then began to bleed, turning the wall from its soft colours, to black, outlined with a blood red. She sneered at the girl at the bottom of the wall before a loud, cruel laugh rang out. The next thing the girl heard was the woman in the tower shriek, "OFF WITH HER HEAD! GET ALICE'S HEAD!"

Red began to pour from the walls, wrapping around the girl, and forcing her head under. She tried to swim up, but it seemed that there were arms holding her down, keeping her from getting to the surface, and the red liquid was ever so thick. She fought, trying to move her way out of the hands that grasped her arms, but she couldn't. She opened her mouth, and tried to yell, "I'm not Alice! I'm not Alice!" but her voice was lost in the liquid. Out of air, she then felt herself getting consumed in the blackness.

She stayed there for quite some time, until somebody poking and prodding at her back ripped her from the dark waters. She took in a deep breath, and then roll over, grumbling about how she needed more sleep. The poking did not cease, instead, it continued, harder, and she then opened her eyes to see her little brother, a smile on his face as he poked her to get up.

"Ace, you could have let me sleep more, you know that right?" she groaned as she reached out a hand to look at the alarm clock she had. Her little brother, who was not very little, a bit taller than she was, was almost hitting his head on the roof of the small room that she had. In her room was a dresser, filled with dresses that were all decked with spades, her bed, and her bedside table, which had stockings dangling over it. The small space was very cluttered, dresses poking through the cracks of the doors to the dresser, fabric looking up from the drawers of her bed side table, which was covered in paper, and stockings.

"Alex, Ma wants to talk to you," Ace smiled at her, and then he left her to get dressed, ducking under the doorframe to get out.

Ace's bedroom was much bigger than Alex's, even though he was younger then she was. Alex didn't mind though, she was used to her father favouring Ace. Her father rarely knew that Alex was there, usually praising Ace and ignoring Alex, even though she had a more important job then her little brother. Alex wasn't one to hold grudges though, and proceeded to ignore her father as he ignored her.

Alex sighed, sitting up, and unearthing the comb from her bedside table, scattering a few pieces of paper. She brushed through her hair harshly as she yawned, and then moved some more paper, lifting a stocking as well, to get her two hair ties, which had spades on them. She stripped off her nightgown, and then settled into a dress that was black, like her hair, and had white spades cut out along it. The dress rested at her knees, where she then covered up the remainder of her legs with blue and black striped stockings. Alex slipped on her black shoes, fidgeting with the buckle that, like most of the other items of clothing she wore, had spades on them.

It was custom for card families to dress like their names; to not do so would be against the law, the prosecutor held at high treason that usually, more than likely, meant a beheading. Alex belonged to the Spade family; the group of people who had black hair and brown eyes. The other family closest to the Spades was the Clubs; the brown haired, green-eyed folk that lived in the same area as the Spades did. But the Spades and the Clubs were nothing more than friends, any romances between them would mean that the newly married couple, and usually the child that showed that they had been together, were killed by having their heads cut off.

The Hearts was the family that ruled the Wonderland, which had been renamed by the Queen two years after Alice's sudden disappearance to Heart's Country. These auburn haired, light brown-eyed people lived up at the large, heart-coated palace, along with their 'cousins' the Diamonds. The Diamonds were of the court of the Queen, always helping with the laws, seldom breaking them. They kept their blond heads high as they stared at the lesser families, Clubs and Spades, through their blue eyes.

These families were not all blood related, and sometimes it was hard for the citizens of Town of Cards to realize who was and who wasn't, since they were only allowed to marry into their own 'family'. They were only called families, because they always acted as one big family, even though they weren't. They were grouped together because of their looks and their looks only.

Wonderland was not a pleasant place to live in if one belonged to the Club and Spade family, for these people were used as labourers, running bread stores, being miners for gold, silver and other precious metals, and, most of all, under the Queen's rule, disposable. Alex happened to be one of the luckier part of the Spade family, running a tailor shop that the Queen happened to shop at quite often, as did the other families, for they made both incredible dresses, and plain dresses, affordable for all families.

Alex had been born and raised in Wonderland, living in the Capital, and possibly the only city, Town of Cards, which rested on the edge of the Joker's Forest. People seldom went in there, for it was rumoured that there were beast, and worst of all, the Mad Hatter, who had not been seen since Alice had entered Wonderland. It could have been that the Mad Hatter had not been seen at all, for nobody remembered what Wonderland was like before Alice had come.

The elderly people had no recollection of their childhoods, or even of bearing the people that they knew were their children. Alex's own parents did not remember her birth, for she was three the time Alice had come, twenty years ago. But what the people did know was when Alice came, the Queen had gotten angrier, much more willing to chop off the heads of an innocent Club or Spade.

The Queen hated Alice with a passion; the mention of her name in front of her was enough to get your head sliced off, as was calling the Queen dubbed Heart's Country, Wonderland. Anybody who had seen Alice, anybody who had talked to her, was either in hiding; from the Queen's rage or they were dead.

One of Alex's first memories as a girl was seeing the large head of the Dodo bird set out on display on the outside wall of the palace; where it still remained to this day, all those years later. People in Wonderland did not speak of Alice, people in Wonderland pretended Alice had never existed, but it had seemed like they had only came when Alice was there. It was like they were dropped on the place, as were their houses, the moment Alice set foot in Wonderland, but most people would never admit it, happy in their places; or not.

Alex ran down the stairs; strangely for a girl who was a victim under the crown of the Queen on may think she would be quieter, but she was always happy, always with a spring under her feet. Her mother was sitting behind the desk of the store of their house, a needle in her hand, mending a dress that she had been given only a few moments ago. The Club girl waiting in the store must have been the owner of the dress.

Their kitchen was in the other side of the store, where they sometimes gave their customers things to eat if they were lacking in food. It was the only part of the house that was on the lower floor that the Spade family used often.

With a simple nod, Alex knew that her mother had breakfast set out at the table and that if she wanted any, then she had better get their fast before Ace blew through, taking up all of the food. Alex sat down at the table, across from her brother, whom she was eight years senior to, but still loved him dearly. Ace was already shovelling the food into his mouth, and Alex then grabbed an apple, taking a bite out of it, inspecting her hands with had small scars on them from the times she had poked herself with the needle when she was younger.

Alex was a seamstress in her family's store and she was the most important seamstress of them all. It was Alex who made the Queen's dresses; her models had their own corner of the shop that nobody but Alex was allowed to touch. For an outsider, it seemed strange that Alex was the one who made the Queen's dresses, but to somebody who knew the Queen's ways, it was perfectly logical. If the Queen did not approve the dress, it would be Alex who would lose her head, not her mother or her father; the general breadwinners of the family.

Ace had helped around the store, delivering fixed clothing items, but never actually picking up the needle like all the rest of his family had. Ace was a boy who longed for adventure in an adventure-less life. Sitting down and sowing his life away wasn't something he was ready to do, or something he was talented at. Ace instead was a great man at work, with strong muscles he clearly got from his grandfather, who, supposedly, since he did not remember, used to go out into Joker Forest and gather wood for the people in Town of Cards.

The forest, though, hadn't been entered since Alice's arrival, which to say, had never been entered at all. The only thing the people knew that lay in the Joker Forest were horrible monsters, and the Mad Hatter, who was one of the most horrible of all the monsters, luring the children in with his friendly smile and then setting them under a spell with his riddling. Laughter could be heard along the outside of the forest, where few people lived, and the people who lived there were too poor to afford anything else, thus earning the woods the name Joker Forest; for it was told a horrible Joker lived in the woods.

Alex thought that most of it was folly, though, as she mulled over her brother's loud exclamation that he, too, would bring wood to the people in Town of Cards, for there was a shortage of it now. They were simply children's tales told to scare people from trying to go into the forest and find the Hatter, who was simply as mad as mad could get. At least, that's what the stories had told her.

After she was finished her food, Alex washed her dishes and then set to work, drawing out on her sketchpad a new dress for the Queen. The Queen of Hearts, as everybody called her, had recently gotten into the habit of wrapping her long, red hair around heart shaped wires and waxing it into place. Alex decided that she would style the Queen's new dress to this style, making the neckline a heart, with long, white sleeves, and long white skirt with an overlaying red lace skirt, with hearts cut interlaced in it.

Alex checked the long rolls of fabric along the walls of the store, checking that she had the materials she wanted at hand, before she then got a model and began to measure out the fabric. She was pinning it into place when Ace then sauntered over to her, holding out another apple for her to eat. Alex looked up at him, pins in her mouth as her brows furrowed at the white silk she was measuring off, before she made a gesture for him to sit down.

The only other person that was allowed to go even near Alex when she was working was Ace, who, even though he was growing and was not yet used to his long, but stocky legs, and he often tripped. Ace seemed to know what danger his sister was in when she was making her dresses; one bloodstain on the white fabric was enough for Alex to lose her head. Ace didn't understand why Alex used white fabric, but he didn't question it, for he knew that his older sister would begin to rant at him about the black wouldn't look as great as the white would.

Ace didn't understand fashion, but he respected his sister's gift, and he knew that he gift was the only thing that had kept her alive the past five years she had been working as the Queen's seamstress. At first, Ace was angry with his parents for putting Alex, the only sister he had, and his one role model and the only girl he would let hug him, in danger, but when Alex took him in a separate room for a talk, he understood. Being the ten year old that he was, Ace proclaimed that he wouldn't let the Queen behead Alex, even if the Mistress of Hearts, as the Spades and Clubs called her behind her back, said it so.

Ace sat down, and he watched as his sister then began, with skilled hands, to sew up the dress along the lines that she had pinned. She then got out a pair of sharp scissors, and began to cut off the access fabric. She turned to Ace, and smiled, recalling the one time Ace had accidentally cut his hand on the very scissors his older sister favoured, bringing them over to Alex. Alex then promptly pushed her bleeding brother away from her work, so she then wouldn't get killed for spilling blood, no matter whose blood on her dress for the Queen, before; she then began to bandage the cut on his hand. Ace recalled trying to not cry, being a twelve year old, crying wasn't acceptable, nor was it expected of him.

After she had sown the red heart for the neckline on the dress, Alex sat down next to Ace and accepted the apple from him, smiling at her little brother as she wiped sweat off her brow as she took a bite of her apple. Ace looked down at Alex, for she was quite shorter than him, and he then said, "You work too hard, Alex."

"Ace, the Queen expects a dress a week, and if I give her three, then she should not behead me as easily as she might have," Alex retorted before she then took another bite of her apple, looking at her little brother, stress breaking its way through her controlled mask. Ace put his hand on his older sister's shoulder, a frown resting on his face.

"You need to get out more, Alex; you're always cooped up in here… You need to get out," Ace told her, and then Alex frowned at him. He knew that she would start to rant about how much money this brought in, and how they needed it to thrive; otherwise they wouldn't be in this situation right now. But she didn't say anything, instead her face screwed up and she then looked down at her shoes, which were still shining from the shoeshine she had applied on them yesterday.

"I can't, Ace," Alex finally said, "I can't, otherwise she'll kill me. I'm like a fly locked in a spider's web. As long as I appease it, then it won't kill me, but as soon as I lose my sense of entertainment to it, I'm nothing more than another fly on her web, ready to be eaten."

"Always speaking in riddles, I see, Alex," Ace smiled at her for a moment, and he then stood up, for their mother was calling him to start running some deliveries. Alex smiled at his retreating back, and then went back to making the Queen her dress. She sighed as she then pinned the red lace over top of the white, and began to sow it on. She was tired, Ace had woken her up a bit too early, but she was almost always alert, and now wasn't an exception.

The dress was completed by mid-day, and the apple that had remained untouched until then was finally bitten in as Alex admired her work. She hopped that the Queen would like what she had done; for Alex thought it was one of her best. She then swept up the scrap fabric and put it in a wooden box for extra things that Alex might have wanted to do. As she was eating her apple, she remembered the reason why Ace woke her up.

She walked over to her mother, who was mending another Club's dress at the counter again. Her mother looked exactly like Alex. She had a heart-shaped face, olive toned skin, and high cheekbones. Even when she was frowning, she always seemed to have a cheery glow to her. The only difference was that she had wrinkles around her eyes, and the white that sprinkled her hair. She looked up at her daughter, and then smiled at her. "What is it, Alex?"

"Ma, Ace woke me up because he said that you needed me for something," Alex replied, putting her needles away in a box on the counter and then smiled as another Club walked in, carrying a bunch of shirts that had multiple rips in it. Alex looked at him for a moment, and then realized that he was probably one of the Clubs that worked in the gold mine at the edge of the Town of Cards. He had many burn scars on his face and arms, and most of his clothes were mostly ripped because of burns.

Alex took out a stronger needle then the one that she was using before because his clothes were made of burlap, and it was much tougher then the silk and lace she was previously sowing. She began to mend the clothes before she looked at her mother, who was biting her lip at the question that Alex had just asked. Alex made little chat with the man, though she looked at her mother, very worried at her expression. Once Alex had finished, she then looked at her mother expectantly.

Linda Spade looked at her daughter for a moment, and she then looked at her for a moment, before she sighed, sitting down on a chair. "Alex, your aunt has just been executed by the Queen because she accidently…"

"She did something petty, didn't she, Ma," Alex said and then she looked down at her box of extra fabric and she took out a piece of red lace she had been recently working on. She clenched it in her hand, and she then looked up at her mother, "Somebody needs to stop her one day. Alice needs to come."

"Alex, if I hear you say that again, I will keep you in your room for a month!" Linda yelled at her and she then sighed at her again. "Alex, my sister has just died; I don't need my daughter to die soon as well! You know that the Queen has something against the You-Know-What, and you are not going to be mentioning her name like it is a type of fabric!"

"Wonderland needs hope, Ma, we are too scared of her," Alex said, and she then went upstairs into her room. All of her life, Alex had heard of relatives getting killed by the Queen's rage; when Alex was five, the Queen murdered the King of Wonderland because she claimed that the King did not love her. Alex sighed; her country was falling into ruin because of a rouge Queen, and somebody needed to over throw her. But nobody wanted to, for they were scared of the Card Soldiers that only listened to the Queen.

Alex looked at the mural on her wall, and she then added another design onto it. It was of a rose, like the ones that her aunt used to sell at her flower shop. On the wall, there was a golden face, for her uncle that died in a mining accident. Five cupcakes were also on the wall, representing her cousin's family that had all gotten killed because the Queen did not enjoy one of their cupcakes. A needle, for the doctor that was also her cousin the Queen had killed because the needle had hurt her arm, and a baby bottle because of the aunt's child that was murdered because it cried near the Queen's ear.

Once the rose was finished, Alex lay down on her bed, and then sighed. The Queen had to be stopped, Alex would have to find Alice to do that though, and nobody knew where Alice was. She couldn't ask around, otherwise she would be killed by the Queen for mentioning Alice's name.

"_**One day, she will be put in her place,**  
**Alice will come, come for her tea,**  
**The Queen's body won't have a face,**  
**Wonderland shall be free.**"_

Alex remembered the little song that was sung to her when she was a little child, before the Queen had realized they were singing this along the streets. Alex remembered the Card Soldiers, which were nothing more than lifeless puppets of the Queen, running through Wonderland and dragging people from their homes, killing them because they had sung the song. The streets of Wonderland were red for weeks afterwards, and Alex remembered all of the crying people, screaming about their families dying.

Alex heard a knock on the door, and she looked out the small window of her room. From her place in her room, she saw the swarm of Card Soldiers that always surrounded the Queen whenever she left the palace and Alex recognized the Queen's heart-shaped red hair. Alex hopped off of her bed, and she then ran down the stairs, and tried to make herself look presentable. Alex then got out the two dresses she had finished before the Queen's arrival.

The Queen did not say anything; instead she inspected the dresses with her tight-lipped frown. She lifted the sleeves of the white silk, and gave a smile. "I do like these dresses, seamstress. What is your name?"

Alex took in a breath, before she then nodded at the Queen who was taller than Alex. The Queen had a pretty face when it wasn't screwed up like she usually had it, and she was a little chubby because she would often eat many tarts but Alex, or anybody couldn't tell her otherwise, or they would get killed. Alex then continued, "My name is Alex, Your Majesty."

"Alice? Your name is Alice?" The Queen's eyes widened in rage as she then snapped her fingers so the Card Soldiers came in and circled her.

"No! Alex, Your Majesty, not the other one," Alex tried to reassure her, and she tried to keep her head on her body. Alex knew that if the Queen did not hear her proper name she would be beheaded in a matter of hours, along with the other people who had offended the Queen in some way. Alex shook in her shoes as Ace then walked in from his deliveries. The fifteen-year-old boy tried to get to Alex, but their mother then grabbed him by the arm to stop him.

"What did you just say?" The Queen broke the tense silence. The Card Soldier's grip tightened around Alex's wrist as the Queen spoke. The tight-lipped woman then looked down at Alex for a moment, her light brown eyes narrowing in dislike as she looked in Alex's dark brown ones. The Queen then frowned at Alex before she then said, "Repeat what you just said to me."

"My name is Alex, You Majesty, not the other one," Alex's voice shook as she said this and the Queen's narrowed more as she looked at Alex, inspecting the young woman with her cold eyes. The Queen almost gasped as she then saw something in Alex that nobody else in the room did before she then snapped her fingers.

"You may be Alice in disguise," The Queen finally said, and then Alex's eyes widened. The Queen couldn't possibly mean that, she had been the Queen's seamstress for over five years, and the Queen just noticed that there was something wrong with her? Something else was up with this, but Alex could say anything or she would certainly die. If she wasn't going to die already, the Queen hadn't finished talking yet, so Alex wasn't sure. "We will put you in a court tomorrow, and the Nobles and I will decide if you really are Alice."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Alex nodded, and she looked at Ace, begging him not to get involved. Ace looked back at Alex, and he then hung his head low. The tall boy let the Card Soldiers lead Alex and the dresses the seamstress had made for the Queen out of the Spade's home. Alex turned her head to the window, and then watched as Ace's face from the front window slowly disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

**This story was originally one document so it was not originally written in chapters, therefore, some of the chapters may break off in weird places. Thanks for reading, and please review for any advice! (Or if you like it XD)**


	2. Chapter 2

Alex was thrown into one of the cells in the Heart Dungeons, the place where the people on death row lived their last hour before the busy executer took off all of their heads. The people in there were mostly rational, but some of them were crazy, because the Queen had delayed their executions to put in other, more important ones. Laughter from one of these people filled the room as Alex curled up into the corner of the cell. Even though there were over fifty cells in the Heart Dungeons, Alex still had to share her cell with a couple people.

One of them was an elderly Club, wrinkles around her green eyes, her brown hair streaked with grey. Her face was grim, but her eyes were kind as they looked down at Alex. The woman then wrapped her shawl around her shoulders before she then asked, "What are you in here for, Dearie?"

Alex looked shocked at the old woman before she then answered, "The Queen thinks I may be…" Alex looked at the other people in the cell; a man of Spades, who was rocking back and forth in a corner, and a boy of Spades as well, who was crying for his mother. She beckoned the woman closer and lowered her voice, "Alice. She's giving me a trial for some reason… I think something may be up."

"I'm disappointed that I won't be able to see it," The Club woman said, and Alex's brow furrowed at her. What could the woman possibly be talking about? Why would she want to see Alex's trial? It was probably going to be a five-minute trial in which the Queen and her Diamond Nobles then sentenced her to death. Alex wondered why the Queen was delaying her death by doing this, it seemed unlike the Queen. Alex had caught a bit of fear in the Queen's eyes when she was getting dragged away. Was it that the Queen actually thought she was Alice?

"Why are you in here, if you do not mind me asking," Alex questioned, ignoring what the woman had said before. The Club still smiled down at her, drawing her shawl tighter around her shoulders as a cold breeze was blown in through the doors as the Card Soldiers threw another Spade into a cell across from them. The Spade, who seemed to be around Ace's age, burst out into tears in the corner of her cell. Alex frowned; the Queen was killing too many people. Half of the houses were empty because of this.

"My slow walking got in the Queen's way," The Club said, and she then smiled, "I'd rather die of this then of old age, at least it's quicker."

Alex sighed, and she then huddled closer into the corner of the cell. The minutes ticked by like days, and the hours were like years. After two whole hours, the Club woman was taken by the Card Soldiers, not before she gave Alex her shall. "Use it well, Hope of Wonderland."

This statement caused many of the older folk in the cell to stare at Alex, who then wrapped the shawl around her shoulders to shield herself from the cold of the Heart Dungeons.

She stayed in her corner as she watched her cell get filled and emptied by the Card Soldiers. The Soldiers took the crying Spade three hours after she was put in, and she screamed as they dragged her out down the dungeons. Countless people passed by Alex, all of them doomed to die in the next hour. It was strange, some people laughed and cracked jokes; living the rest of their life the fullest they could possibly live it, while others cried, and went practically insane in the hour; knowing that their death was soon and unavoidable.

Alex remained quiet, holding the shawl around her shoulders with the little strength she had left at the moment. Hunger ripped through her as the sun faded from the small, barred window in her cell, leaving the Dungeon's dark until the Card Soldiers came in and lit torches. Still, even in the night, more people came in, for stealing, for cheating in games, for disrespecting the Queen. People screamed as they were dragged in, cursing the Hounds as they did so.

Alex knew that they had a good reason to curse them; the Hounds were people who turned in wrongdoers when Card Soldiers weren't around to earn a little extra money. Even if they did this, most of them ended up killed anyways; all for a little extra money. Alex didn't know how people could do this; kill others who would not have been killed if they hadn't spoken up, so they could feed their family. Alex knew that family was one of the most important things to her, and probably to other people; but killing others was not something she would do to ensure a meal for them.

The full moon shone over-head of Alex, lighting the sky and the Dungeons without any help of the torches. Alex felt herself reaching out for it, reaching for the freedom that was only blocked by a few metal bars. She watched as birds flew by the moon, and as one landed on the edge of the bars, looking in on the people that were going to be corpses in a matter of hours curiously. One of them then burst out into song, and all people stared at it for a moment before the bird spread its wings and flew away.

It was as easy as that for the bird; it could just fly away while all of these people on the ground were stuck in the Dungeons, slowly rotting away mentally. A clock in somebody's pocket clicked loudly before it then rang one time; signalling that it was one in the morning. From deep in the Dungeons, in the cells that nobody was put in, a voice came. It was tired, and full of insanity. "I'm late… I'm late! I have to go, I'm late, I'm late! Late, late, late, late, late, late, late, late, late, late!"

A Card Soldier walked over there with a torch in his hands, all of the people in the Dungeon watching every one of his steps. The light shone and revealed a white rabbit dressed in a coat, holding a pocket-watch that was stuck at two eternally, for its clockwork was said to be completely destroyed by the Hatter, close to its chest. Its red eyes seemed to bulge in its head, though other than that, it looked completely healthy. It was the White Rabbit; the one that had lead Alice into Wonderland the first time by accident.

The Card Soldier kicked the bars of the cage as if to tell the Rabbit to shut up, and then walked away, concealing the White Rabbit who had been living in the Heart Dungeons for twenty-years without food in the dark. Alex shivered as she heard his small chants of 'late' echoing around the Dungeon. It was told that the Rabbit was relatively sane, until somebody's watch made a bong, and he then began to think that he was late for the Queen, and that his head would get cut off. But that would never happen to him. The White Rabbit was doomed to lay to waste in the Heart Dungeons, for betraying the Queen and bringing Alice into Heart's Country.

The chanting stopped eventually, and a Card Soldier then took the man with the watch to his death. Alex tried not to remember the scared faces of the men and women and children that were taken to their deaths; she tried not to remember the fear, the horror, and with some, the acceptance that was on them as they were lead away. Children cried usually, their young lives getting cut short for something they probably did not mean to say. The men looked insane sometimes, and rational other times and most women cried as they were lead away.

She watched in horror as an entire family of Spades was lead to the Slaughter Court of the Queen. The woman was holding a young baby, who didn't even seem to be one year old in her arms, tears streaming down her face as she tried to comfort the other two, young children. This was pure murder; for words spoken, and simple actions taken. Alex couldn't believe how many lives she had seen get thrown into the garbage by the Queen. Some children couldn't even walk before they were slaughtered!

The sun rose, and Alex realized she was crying, curled up in the corner of her cell, still wearing the shawl. She wanted the Queen to die; even though murder was not something she wanted to happen. The Queen needed to die if Wonderland was ever to be a great country. Alice needed to come back, and Alex almost wished she were Alice at this moment, so she could stop all of this. But, she was locked in a Dungeon, and she was totally helpless to her own impending doom.

The sunlight was on the ground, by Alex, and she reached her hand out to play with it as she waited until her death sentence to come. She wondered if this was going to be the last sunrise she would see in her life, and it made her feel strange. She had always expected to live another day, but now; she thought she wouldn't see another one. Life was funny, making people expect things and then throwing something else at them. As a little girl, she never thought that there would be no yesterday, she always assumed that she would live until she was old.

It seemed as though yesterday was a year ago; when she was free and the only thing she had to worry about was finishing the dress for the Queen. Now, it seemed that she was in a different life, one that was going to get cut short at any moment. Like a piece of string that she had attached to a needle. She would use up all of the string and then she would then have to cut it short, ending its use. That was her at the moment; a piece of string that's use has run short. Soon, her life would be cut short and then thrown away into nothingness.

Alex shivered again, and she wiped the tears away from her face. Her black hair was tangled from all of the rough handling the Card Soldiers had given her, and her dark brown eyes were probably void of all emotion except sorrow. Alex then heard the scraping of metal against the ground as the Card Soldiers opened the door of her cell; the bottom of the door rubbing against the ground causing the sound. The other people in her cell shrunk back, hoping that it wasn't them that were going to get taken to their deaths. Luckily for them, their lives weren't set to end just yet, as the Card Soldier then grabbed Alex's arm and hauled her up.

The metal face of the Card Soldier was black, its face always in the same scowl no matter what they were doing. The Card Soldiers were merely puppets of the Queen, made by sealing the souls of lost men into metal suits. They obeyed every order the Queen said, and they could not die; for they were already dead. Every day, more and more Card Soldiers were created due to the murders the Queen performed on a daily basis. Its hands were cold against Alex's exposed skin, as she then wrapped the shawl higher up so it would not be tainted by the Card Soldier's cold touch.

She was lead past the other prisoners, all of whom gave her sad, empathetic faces. He led her through the bloodstained Slaughter Court, and Alex almost slipped in the freshly spilled blood on the ground. Headless bodies were shoved in one corner, and Alex almost threw up the little food she had left in her stomach seeing the pile of heads along on the ground by them. Flies were everywhere, swarming over the dead corpses, and then flying in the air. Alex closed her mouth to avoid eating any of them by mistake, but she had a hard time not choking on the stench and the sigh of the bodies. Children's bodies were among them, carelessly thrown to the pile, and Alex boiled with rage.

She couldn't believe that this was what so many citizen's in the Town of Cards last saw before they died; a pile of corpses that theirs would soon join. She felt sick to her stomach as she then grasped the shawl, realizing that it's former owner had last seen this only a couple of hours ago before she had died. Alex did not try to find the Club woman's body among the dead, for she knew that she would lose her guts if she did so, and it would make her feel uncomfortable.

It was strange for her to feel about the woman like this; she never even got her name, nonetheless talked to her for longer than five minutes before the woman was carted off to her death. But she liked the woman, she was the only one who had talked to her when she was in the cell, and she hoped she was happy in the Land of Souls.

The courtroom had a large domed ceiling that was decorated with images of the Queen, and multiple members of her court; many of who were dead. The painter's skull was sitting at the end of the room, by the judge's (who was the Queen) desk. Alex remembered the story of the grand artist who was killed because he made the Queen look too large in one photo. Alex grimaced as she looked at the skull, and she hoped that she wouldn't be dead soon as well and that the Queen wouldn't use her head like a trophy.

"Alex Spade," The Queen sneered down at her, as did the court of Diamonds and close relatives to the Queen; the Hearts. Alex looked up at the Hearts, and she then nodded to the Queen, not trusting her voice since she had not used it in a couple hours; and since she was filled with such rage about all of the murders that were happening. The Queen did not seem to notice that Alex had acknowledged her statement; and the Queen did not seem to care, for she then continued, "You are accused of being Alice in disguise."

Around the room, people gasped, and Alex then saw that her family was watching; sitting in the jury's benches, Card Soldiers around them, preventing them from doing anything drastic. Ace had his hands tightened, his knuckles very prominent as he did this. Alex looked at him with wide eyes as if to tell him that he should not say anything. The Diamonds then frowned at Alex, all of them knowing what the Queen already had planned, and all of them ready to agree with her instead of losing their lives.

"Yes, your Majesty," Alex said calmly, speaking for the first time in a while. Her voice was small, but it echoed around the large dome ceiling in the courtroom. The Queen sneered down at Alex, and then she took a sip of a drink that was sitting by the skull. Alex wondered what the red liquid was, but she did not question it for she had Card Soldiers surrounding her.

"All evidence proves that you might be Alice, so the court and I have come to a decision," The Queen told her.

Alex's breath caught in her throat. She didn't know of any evidence against her, but she was going to die soon, she knew it. The Queen would say that she was Alice and then cut off her head, adding her body to the pile outside. Alex could only hope that the Land of Souls was a better place than Wonderland was at the moment, and she hoped that Ace wouldn't be joining her soon after she died; for she knew that he would be outraged if she was killed.

"We sentence you to go into Joker Forest and look for the Mad Hatter. If you are Alice, you would find him for you would already know the way. If you are not Alice, then you will come back empty-handed. We are giving you three weeks to look for him; if you come back before that, we will know that you are Alice. To make sure you actually look, we are keeping your family hostage until you return. If you do not return within a year, we shall kill your family. Understood, Alice?" At this, the Queen gave a little smirk.

Alex looked up at the Queen, shocked for a moment. If she were sent into Joker Forest, she would probably die. Legends told of multiple animals that lived there that were dangerous to humans; and the laughing Joker whose laugh could be heard around the edges of Town of Cards.

Alex wondered how the Queen came up with this, but she did not want to ask yet again; she had been spared this time, but her family was going to have to live in torment while she searched. Alex then decided that she could not find the Hatter; otherwise she would be killed immediately.

She couldn't believe the Queen had made her do this; she could easily pretend to look for the Hatter when she really wasn't going to. Alex would wait out the three-weeks, and return two days after the deadline so she wouldn't be called Alice, so her family could be free. Alex tried not to smile as the Card Soldier then grabbed her arm again. The Queen led her into a separate room. With a smile on her face, the Queen presented a dress that was decked with spades.

The sleeves were cut short, and had blue lace on the end of them. The white fabric went down to her knees, and there were multiple black and blue spades all over them. She had a breast pocket over her heart, and there was a black ribbon around her waist that was tied in a bow at the back. Alex tied her hair back up with the spade elastics after she had finished putting on the dress. The Queen smiled at her for a moment, not a happy smile, more like a cold sneer. "Now I know you haven't hidden anything in your pockets, you can go see your family and get supplies. You are to leave today."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Alex nodded at her, and she then walked out of the room back to her family. Her parents both gave her hugs as Ace stood there in the back. She looked at her little brother, and she then gave him a hug. "Ace, please, don't do anything foolish when I'm gone. I don't want to return to a dead brother."

"Alex, this whole thing is foolish, there is no way that you are Alice," Ace muttered into her ear, bending down so she was the only one that could have heard what he had said. She nodded to him, not trusting her voice, not trusting that ears around the room would not hear it. Ace then let her go as the Card Soldiers filed in, each of them taking a hold of the Spade family's arms so they wouldn't run away. Alex's family was lead back to their home where Linda Spade then fixed her daughter up with all of the necessities for survival.

Alex missed the shawl dearly, the Queen had taken it from her when she had changed; it was warm and she felt protected in it. The dress the Queen had given her was light, and the breeze drifted through her like it was a transparent screen. Her mother put a blanket into her bag over top of the bread, dried fruit and dried meat she had also given to her. Inside her blanket, Linda Spade had slipped in some sowing materials so Alex could do something when she was bored. Her mother then gave her a pouch filled with water that Alex could easily refill if she used it all. Alex then gave her mother a hug before she whispered, "I'm going to come back in three weeks, I promise Ma."

"Don't get hurt, please Alex," Linda Spade whispered in response and Alex nodded at her. The Card Soldiers then grabbed her family and lead them over to the Heart Dungeons as different Card Soldiers and the Queen brought Alex to the edge of Joker Forest. Alex gulped as she looked at the edge of the forest, dark mist seemed to poor out of it, and there were strange sounds coming from it. Alex didn't want to think what animals were in there, and how she had to spend time with them.

The Queen smirked at her and then she said, "Have a nice trip, Alice. When you see the Mad Hatter, remember, I have your family. One year is all they have to live, so you better find him quick, or find your way home before that, Alice." She turned to leave, but before everything, she then said, "The Hatter will call you Alice, I'm sure of that and you, you are then the true Alice."

These words confused Alex to a great extent, though she did not let it show on her face as she then nodded. Alex slung her bag over her shoulder, hearing the jam jar her mother had put in it roll around before she then stepped onto the red path into the woods. Alex had no clue of where to go; she just needed to make it seem like she was walking somewhere; looking for the Hatter.

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**Thanks to Sarah Victoria Cullen, James Birdsong,and LilyMaeve for reviewing! Thanks to Sarah Victoria Cullen, ichipup, and LilyMaeve for subscribing/favouriting. Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

Strange noises then replaced the marching of the Card Soldiers, and Alex turned back to look at where she just was. She couldn't see anything but fog, so she then sat herself down, cuddling up to a tree, and she wrapped her arms around her knees, before she sat, waiting for the time to pass. She covered herself in the blanket and then noticed that her mother had slipped some of her sowing materials in the blanket. For the first time in a while, Alex smiled before she then put them back in her bag. She would save them for another time.

She watched as animals flitted about, some of them paying little mind to her as they then walked by her, not noticing the young woman who had blended into the tree. The ones that did merely looked at her for a couple moments before they went back onto their business. These animals hadn't seen a human face in a while, so they did not know that they were fierce some like most of the animals around Town of Cards did. A small animal that resembled a fox, though it had ears much like a rabbit and soft eyes like a dog, curled up next to Alex in the middle of the night, looking up at her with sorrowful eyes, as if it knew that Alex was in exile.

She smiled at it for a moment, and then brought her hands to its head to scratch it. The animal jerked away from her for a moment before it then brought its head closer to Alex as she scratched it. After she was finished, the animal got to its feet and then wandered away. No other animal visited her as she stayed there for a whole week, only moving to relieve herself, get water, and when she moved in the little sleep she got. She watched as they walked by, most of them away from the city, and soon, none of them noticed her at all. She was simply another part of the tree.

She never got bored, during the week she was sitting all day, only stretching her legs when she had thought she couldn't move them any longer. She didn't try to remember her brother, for it would leave a pang in her heart that she couldn't get rid of for a while; just thinking about Ace locked up in a dungeon made her heart cry out. He was such a free spirited boy, and cages would crush him.

The animals and flowers that were around Alex interested her greatly, for they constantly changed or moved. One bird resembled a cage, and had a couple of fluttering birds in it. Another bird would fly by it, and the Bird Cage, as Alex decided to call it, would chase it and then gobble it up, adding another bird to its collection. The more birds it had in it, the larger the cage would get. When it wasn't chasing its prey, it would hang from the tree Alex was under, silently, its eyes looking out for another bird to become its prey.

Alex noticed that the hum of the Town of Cards had disappeared, almost as if she was slowly moving away from it, even though she knew she was not moving. She had never heard stories of the ground moving in Joker Forest, but if it did, it did not surprise Alex. Too many strange things had occurred in the past couple days for Alex to believe anything was impossible.

One afternoon, after Alex had been there for a week and her food had been running low, a stranger animal then anything Alex had seen before came across her path when she was getting water from a nearby stream that curved around a large tree; its source of water from the rain and the dew that dripped from the tree's leaves. The animal was only a floating smile, and then a pair of eyes, before it became a smile again. The Bird Cage noticed it, and then began to chase around the smile, trying to snap it up in its jaws before the smile turned into a large cat and hissed at it.

Alex dropped her water bottle as she saw the cat. Its fur was striped with silver, blue and purple and its eyes were a brilliant yellow-green as it then turned to the sound of the water bottle falling on the ground. Alex looked at it in shock, trying not to move so it wouldn't notice her. The Bird Cage squawked at it, and then ran back to its tree as the cat then landed by Alex. She stiffened as it got closer, and then looked around for something to use as a weapon. There were no sticks on the ground, however, and she didn't want to take one from the trees for they seemed to be alive and would probably attack her.

So she let the cat get closer to her, and then watched as its smile reappeared. It floated back up into the air, turning so it was upside down before it then said, "Long time no see, hmm, Alice? I have wondered where you have been for the past twenty years. You've left me lonely, see? The Hatter no longer cares about me, and the Queen has killed the Dormouse and the March Hare. Twiddledee and Twiddledum are hidden; Butterfly does not see me either."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Alex started, looking down at her feet. She had a basic idea who this cat was, though she did not want to admit it to herself; it would make this ordeal seem real. "But I am not Alice. I am Alex Spade, pleased to meet you though."

"So you aren't Alice… hmm," the Cat said and then he floated closer to her, as if he was inspecting her. The Cat then turned into a smile again, before it frowned at her and then was only a head. "You do look different, your hair is black, and your eyes are not blue. She was a bit more curious then you were, asking how I could turn into a smile. But you smell like her, and you have that sort of… glow to her that you have as well."

The Cat's eyes widened a little bit as he seemed to realize something about her, before he broke out into another smirk, floating above her head. He lifted a piece of her hair and held it close to his face as if he was looking for something before he then rested on the ground again. "I am the Cheshire Cat at your service, Alex. The Hatter will like to see you soon. I shall lead you to him, you seem a bit lost."

"I'm sorry, Cat, but I do not want to see the Hatter; if I do, the Queen will kill me because she thinks I am Alice, which you happened to do as well," Alex told him, kindly, as she then picked up the water bottle that had she had dropped when the Cat had first shown its whole body. She filled it up with water, and then took a sip from it before she put it in her bag. The Cat then frowned at her again.

"You don't want to come, hmm, Alex?" The Cat asked tentatively before it then smiled at her again, grabbing her bag and then flying off with it. Alex looked at it in dismay; she knew what this Cat was doing, but she didn't want to follow it. She then thought of the ways she could die; getting beheaded by the Queen, a quick, fast death, or slowly starve to death because she had her luggage stolen from her by a Cat. She chose the first one, and then she ran off to follow the Cat.

"Give me back my bag, Cat!" Alex exclaimed as she then looked up at him, trying to grab her bag from him. The Cheshire Cat smiled at her, and then tauntingly waved her bag over her head. Alex put her hands on her hips as the Cat then flew back away. Alex stumbled over roots, and almost fell when her foot caught on a rock, but she was determined to get her bag back from the Cat, even if it meant she fell down and sprained her ankle. Her only food was in that bag, as well as her water and she needed it to live.

It didn't take that long for Alex to reach where the Hatter was, and the Cat then dumped her bag on her head before it smiled yet again, "I'll leave you two alone now, shall I?" before it disappeared into nothingness again. Though he was gone from her sight, Alex heard a ghostly voice humming the song of the Queen's downfall fade as it floated farther and farther away from her.

Alex peered around the tree that the cat's grin had last been. Sitting at the head of a long table, was a man with auburn hair that was bluntly cut at his chin. A tall piling hat that was made of green velvet, littered with tea stains and burns, purple lace wrapped around it, hanging off of the edge, dangling in his face was rested atop his head. There was a strange thing in his hat; a sign that said 10/6. His brown eyes were large, so bright they looked more gold then brown and they had a slightly crazed look to them. He had a cracked teacup in his hands, and he sat alone, waving his cup, tea spilling out through the cracks. Hanging from his pocket, waving across his chest was a pocket watch, seemingly broken, its hands stuck at six o'clock.

Alex stepped from her place around the tree, and she looked at him for a moment, unsure of what to do. Flattening out her dress, she then asked, "Are you the Mad Hatter?"

"So you've come for tea, now haven't you, Alice?" he replied pouring a cup and then waving it in front of him, spilling it on the white and black laced table cloth, which already had multiple tea stains on it. Alex was reminded of what the Queen had said to her about the Hatter calling her Alice, and then the fact that she was the actual Alice. Worry fluttered in her heart as she then looked at him, panic flashing in her eyes.

"I'm not Alice," Alex said for what seemed the thousandth time, defending herself, not wanting to be branded as Alice, or the Queen would kill both her and her family. She then took a step closer to the Hatter, pulling out a chair and sitting in it, never once taking her eyes off of the Hatter for she was worried he would do something drastically insane; like putting her under a spell as the Queen always said he would. "My name is Alex Spade."

"Do you still want some tea then, Alex?" Hatter made it clear that he knew her name before he smiled at the dark-haired girl, pouring another cup of tea, revealing his straight, tea stained teeth. Alex didn't smile back, and instead watched his every move with a frown upon her lips.

"You still haven't answered my first question, are you Hatter?" Alex stopped the teacup he had slid at her from falling off the table as she demanded this. She looked at her cup for a moment, and then took a wary sip, not sure if the Hatter had put her under any spell with the tea. The tea was rather cold, tasteless, and it could have used some sugar, so Alex set it down, pushing it back to the Hatter.

His smile grew as he took her tea in his hands, his eyes glinting with delight that he now had somebody to drink his tea with, and then put some sugar cubes in it. "There, this should be better."

Alex frowned and then caught the cup again. Taking a sip, she then realized that it was exactly the way she liked it. She wondered how he could do this with just his hands, but she then assumed that he was already clouding her mind with a spell. Furrowing her brows, she then asked again, "You are Hatter, are you not?"

"Now that we've gotten some tea, may I introduce myself?" he said before he took off his hat, and gave a little bow, "I am the Mad Hatter, at your service, Alex or may I call you Alice?"

"My name is Alex, not Alice!" Alex exclaimed, an annoyed expression showing on her face as she set her teacup down on the table with excess force, causing little drops of tea to fall on the lace of the tablecloth. The Hatter seemed startled at her sudden anger, but his smile was quick to come back on his face, curving up, making his eyes crinkle slightly.

He stood up, giving Alex a good view of his green velvet waistcoat, tattered burnt and tea stained, and purple under shirt, which had multiple holes in it, and many buttons lose. His black pants were much like the other items of clothing he owned, ripped and tea stained, but still managing to look elegant all the same. His black leather shoes desperately needed a shine, but they were still nice looking. There was a rose in his breast pocket, long dead and dried, crinkled, pieces breaking off as he walked.

He took it out, and he gave to Alex, a smile still on his face. Alex, who was still sitting, took the rose from his fingers, and with an amazed look on her face, watched as the rose regained its former look. She dropped the red rose, gasping, and she then fell out of her chair, as the rose aged back, rapidly, and smashed into small pieces.

"What was that?" Alex said, shaking from her place on the ground. The Hatter's grin wavered for a moment as he considered her powers, before he then squatted down so his face was near hers.

"That was the gift of an Alice, Alex, you are an Alice," Hatter whispered to her, "And your similar name wasn't what made the Queen of Hearts send you to 'prove you aren't Alice.' She wanted to send you away, because you are an Alice, you just aren't the Alice."

"But... How did you know? And you can't call me Alice, it's not my name! I don't want to be an Alice; the Queen already is threatening to kill my family because my name is so similar!" Alex told him, her voice nothing more than a whisper. Tears budded in her eyes, and she let the Hatter help her up.

"First, some tea, and no tears, right Alex?" Hatter told her, and Alex nodded, sitting back in her chair. Instead of going back to his chair, he sat next to Alex; the madness in his eyes faded slightly, determination replacing the small amount that was gone.

He handed Alex a new cup of tea, along with the pocket watch set at six. Alex first took the tea, draining the cup, and having the Hatter fill it again. Alex took another sip of her tea, before she looked at the watch and asked, "It's not going to start walking, is it?"

"It might," Hatter said, completely sincere; his smile reappearing back on his face. Alex sighed, and then took the watch in her hand. It immediately began to tick again, the second hand moving from the zero second mark, to the first one, making a loud tick.

"It's working again!" Alex stated the obvious and Hatter closed her fingers around the clock. She looked up at him, her dark brown, almost black eyes piercing his bright brown ones. Somehow, she felt as though she could trust him; even after all of the things that had the Queen had said about him before.

"It's yours now," Hatter told her softly, a grin lightly playing on his lips, "only with you the clock will work. Only an Alice like you can make the clock work, and only you can keep it working."

"But it is only a clock," Alex replied, holding it by the chain, swinging it side to side in front of her face before she the put it in the breast pocket of her dress of spades, given to her by the Queen. She decided that it was a good gift though, for she never knew the time before and now she could. It was a beautiful clock as well, the body of it silver, with curly designs carved in the back. The numbers were a silver-black, as was the hands of the clock, and the ticking sound it made was almost comforting.

"Alex, with you around, people can live forever. As long as you are fed, kept happy and not injured, you can live forever young, forever in Wonderland," Hatter looked at her seriously, which was surprising. He was almost always looking like he was insane in some way. "I have been stuck at six, drinking tea, waiting for you to come, for twenty years, Alex."

"But... The last Alice came twenty years ago, when I was only a girl of three," Alex frowned at him trying not to think about the things he had just said about her. She wasn't that important, and she didn't want to be; she was just a humble seamstress. She shook her head and then continued "You hardly look more than twenty!"

"I have been stuck at twenty-six for twenty years," the Hatter then smiled, and all of his seriousness then faded. He waved the teapot over his head, and then said, "Looks like your tea cup is empty! Let me fill it!"

Alex sighed and then she looked down at her cup, which had only been emptied by one sip. She had plenty tea, but she guessed that the Hatter had been stuck at teatime for twenty years, and he must have only drunk tea for that time. She wondered how he had not died because of all the caffeine he was drinking, or from the overload of sugar he had in his tea. The Hatter filled her cup so it overflowed, spilling on the tablecloth as he then held it up with shaking hands, giving it to her.

"Hatter, here," she reached into the bag her family had given her after she accepted the teacup and took out the last loaf of bread. With one of the knives set out at the table, she sawed of a large piece and, without reluctance, handed it to the Hatter. He looked at it for a moment, confused. She pitied him for a moment, because he seemed to be at a complete loss of actions because of a simple piece of bread.

"This is for me?" Hatter took it in his hands, looking at it curiously. He held it up, looking at it from all angles before he hit it against the table and then he asked, "What is it?"

Alex looked at him, shocked momentarily that the Hatter had forgotten what bread was. Even with twenty years lacking real food, Alex was sure that she would have remembered what bread was. She ate it so often, since her family was sometimes not able to afford much else, even though they were much better off than most of the other families were. Thinking of her family brought Ace back to her mind, and she then frowned for a moment, before she tried to forget him again. Maybe, reckoned Alex to herself, he had never had it.

"Bread, Hatter, it is bread," Alex told him, and she then sighed at him as he then hit it against the table again, "You eat it. You can't tell me that you haven't had bread before?"

"Bread? Is that what this is?" Hatter remarked, and he looked at her for a moment a smile coming on his lips again; replacing the confused expression that had been resting on his face for the last couple minutes. "You have very strange things in Town of Cards."

"Trust me, Hatter, there are much stranger things in Town of Cards," Alex said, thinking of the skull if the Dodo, still in the same place where it had rotted all those years ago. She wished she hadn't brought it to her mind, for she was then thinking how her skull would be added next to it, the words 'Alice' written underneath it probably. She shuddered as she thought about it, but she knew she had to go back; she would never leave Ace and her parents to death to save her own life.

"I remember," Hatter said suddenly, his eyes glazing over slightly. He shuddered for a moment, and then he shook his head again. Alex frowned at him for a moment. How could he remember other strange things when he had been in the woods since Alice? She waited for him to continue, but he did nothing but set down the bread and took a sip of his tea.

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**Thanks to LilyMaeve, and K9olaquia for reviewing. Thanks to K9olaquia and HidanKakuzuFanGirl for favouriting. Sorry for the wait! Thanks for reading, and please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

"What do you remember, Hatter?" Alex asked and he frowned at her, before he set down his teacup. Alex regretted saying this, for a confused look glazed over his face yet again, and he seemed to get lost in his memories. He looked at her, a sad expression on his face before it then seemed that he forced himself to forget what he had remembered.

"More tea, Alice?" Hatter finally said, his mad smile growing on his face. He reached into his pocket, probably trying to get the pocket watch, which he had given to Alex only moments ago. His smile faltered slightly as his fingers slipped through the pocket, not touching the pocket watch he had assumed that was in there. His smile came back warily as he then said, "I'm sure it's tea time. We need some more tea."

"Eat the bread, Hatter, it will maybe keep you sane for a while," Alex told him sternly, looking over him like a mother and he did what she said, slowly eating the bread. After he was finished, he seemed to remember something else. He then looked at Alice and a wide smile grew on his face.

"You don't need sanity for what I'm going to tell us next," the Hatter practically giggled at Alex, and he clasped his hands together, wringing them slightly before he stood up and took off his hat. He began twirling it around on his fingers, making it do loops around his fingers that Alex found quite amazing for somebody who had been sitting in a chair for quite some time. He turned to Alex and then he twirled his hat so it then twirled up on top of his head.

"What?" Alex frowned at him wanting to know what he was about to say, "Something told by you must surely lack in most common sense now, shouldn't it?"

"What if I told you that Alice was still here, in Wonderland?" he looked mischievously at her, before he turned away, walking from his table and into the woods, his shoes making the crisp leaves crinkle. Before he was completely out of eye, he turned and brought his hand to the rim of his hat and held it up so his eyes pierced Alex. In a voice that was very gentlemanly, he said, "I'll leave it to you to decide if that is folly."

Alex watched as he disappeared into the dark woods, the last thing she saw was the purple lace hanging off of his hat. It only took her a second to stand up and run from the table, leaving it empty, the cracked teacups falling into ruin. A table leg rotted off, causing the whole table to collapse, and the rest of the teacups and pots to shatter with a muffled clink. The Hatter's former home fell into nothing more but shattered china and rotten wood; the only thing certain was the fact it had been here for a long time.

"Hatter! Hatter!" Alex called out, surrounded by trees, not a thing in her sight. The grass was free of footprints and Alex had no clue of what to do. "You are not folly, Hatter! I would be folly to not believe you! Hatter! I need your help! Please Hatter!"

From around a tree, the Mad Hatter appeared, a grin on his face, his lace on his hat an orange now. Alex's eyebrows furrowed at him, wondering how he had gotten new lace, but she did not ask; too many strange things happened around the Hatter.

"So, it seems that we understand each other, Alice?" Hatter smiled at her, and he then looked at a handkerchief in his hand acting as if the handkerchief had the time on it, "Oh, it's tea time."

"Hatter, now is not the time for tea! And I've told you before, my name is not Alice! I am Alex!" Alex sighed again; wondering when he would finally understand that she was not Alice, wondering when the Heart's Country would understand she wasn't Alice.

"Alex now?" Hatter chuckled, his face growing dark, "I was sure you were an Alice, but I guess you aren't."

"But I am, Hatter!" Alex told him, "I am an Alice called Alex Spade!" She then took out the pocket watch and showed it to him. "See, I made the watch work, you told me that was the power of an Alice!"

The Hatter's eyes trailed the second hand as it passed twelve, counting that it was five past six, and he then smiled a smile that showed off his tea stained teeth at her. He seemed to remember who he was talking to and he then said "Indeed you are, Alex, now about the Alice being in Wonderland."

"Hatter, you are mistaken, this is no longer Wonderland, the Queen has named it Heart's Country," Alex said, looking down at her feet, realizing he had been calling it Wonderland for this whole time. She kept her head down watching the ground instead of the Hatter in case he got angry with her.

"Do you still believe that this is Wonderland? Then it is Wonderland," Hatter grinned at her and then he took off his hat. Reaching in, he then pulled out a rolled up piece of paper that, much like everything else that the Hatter owned, was tea stained and extremely tattered. He then sighed, "How I could go for some tea..."

Alex sighed yet again, as she then took the scroll of paper from the Hatter and unravelled it. She was momentarily shocked at it, but she then reckoned that she should get used to strange things in the near future.

On the page was a map of Wonderland, as the curly script on the top proclaimed. There were illustrations on the map, for Town of Cards, there was a picture of the Queen, for the woods, there was a large, blinking cat, and then a smile. The Queen's face turned from a smiling one, to one with a cold sneer before her mouth moved like she was yelling. Hatter's tea table was marked with a broken teacup that kept on getting filled with tea, and then emptied. Alex and Hatter's faces, blinking, marked where they were standing; Alex's face plastered with amazement.

"It's a map!" Alex exclaimed, watching as the lips of the map Alex moved along with hers. She looked at it in amazement, never before had she seen something so magical, even with the Hatter around. "Is it magic? Or am I doing this?"

"The map will only tell an Alice where they needs to go," Hatter smiled at her child-like behaviour, and then he looked at the map, his brow furrowing in confusion as he watched another icon, that was shaped as a butterfly, start to move across the map in their direction. He seemed that he wanted to say something important for a moment before he then asked, "Have you any idea why a raven is like a writing desk?"

Alex remembered that she was taught this riddle in school. The Queen had made it necessary because she had told them the Hatter would ask it, and she said if they didn't understand, he'd put them under a spell. But since the Hatter hadn't yet put her under any magic spell, she assumed that the Queen was just saying that to keep people away from him, in fear of the Alice finding him. She wondered why Hatter was waiting for the Alice now, for he hadn't really explained much. She then realized that she wouldn't get an answer from him anyways, and shook her head.

"Hatter, you do realize that there is no answer to that riddle?" Alex replied, as she then looked at the map. It was truly an amazing piece of magic, and Alex couldn't help but stare at it as multiple icons began to move around, mostly around Town of Cards. As she watched this, silver dotted lines appeared on the surface of the map, starting at the icon of Alex and the Hatter, leading through the woods, off the edge of the map.

"There is an answer; it just won't make any sense at all!" Hatter told her, his golden eyes shining with delight. He laughed a little bit as Alex sighed at him. It was almost like he was expecting her to answer that way. "The fun part is coming up with it."

"You'll never make sense, Hatter, but this map leads us off the edge of Wonderland!" Alex then brought her hand to her lips; it was illegal to call Heart's Country Wonderland: the penalty was death. She then realized that the Queen would kill her anyways, but it was still a habit, and she didn't want to give the Queen another reason to kill her; she already had two reasons over her head, three would be too much. One; she was an Alice, and two; she had met the Mad Hatter, and he had called her Alice. The Queen didn't need to know that Alex was secretly speaking treason about her at this moment, or ever, for that matter.

"The Dark Queen can't hear you out here, Alice, you do not need to fret," Hatter cocked his head to the side and as he looked at the map, tracing the silver line with his pointer finger (that had a couple burns on it from the tea.) He then held the map upside down, and turned his head upright. Alex wondered what he was doing, or what he could see with the map like that, but she did not want to copy him for she didn't want to look like a fool. The Hatter then concluded, "Just because it leads off of the edge of the map, does not mean that it leads off the edge if the world." He then reached into a pocket in his waistcoat and brought out a cup, "Tea, Alice?"

"Hatter, I may be an Alice, but I do not want to be called that, if the Queen hears, then I'll be put under arrest and killed!" Alex shot at him, slight anger rising in her voice. She was really tired of being called Alice, for people didn't call animals by what they were. One did not simply walk up to a bird and call it bird. It was starting to bother her greatly. "My name is Alex!"

"Ah, no tea then?" Hatter put away the cup, and then he looked at the map again, the lines still in the same place, shining up at them. He then brought his gaze to the map Alex, and then frowned again for a moment as he then kept his gaze on it.

"Hatter, I have a question," Alex stated, and the Hatter turned his gaze from the map Alex to the real Alex. He then rolled up the map and stuck it in his hat, and then promptly stuck his hat on his head, shifting it slight so it was straight. He looked at Alex for a moment as if he wanted to ask her if he looked okay.

"And what may that be? Questions are dangerous things in Wonderland, Alex," Hatter's eyes glinted mischievously as he looked at Alex, a small smile appearing on his lips. Alex shuddered at him for a moment, wondering why he said things like this when he was completely out of the loop at the moment. Hatter didn't seem know what the Queen had done to many innocent people, Hatter couldn't understand that people were dying because of a few words he had just said as well.

Alex felt uncomfortable under his gaze, for it seemed to look as though it knew her better then she knew herself. She looked down at her feet for a moment, wondering if she should ask what she was about to ask, seeing as it was a very important question. She then decided that she would ask it, and she looked up at him. She did not falter when she inquired, "Are there other Alices apart from the Alice and me?"

A memory flashed through Hatter's eyes as she asked this, and he then saw a woman with long, blond hair smiling at him, beside her a man with brown hair gave him a wave. Hatter shuddered for a moment, and was tempted to bring his hands up to his eyes to block them out, before they then disappeared. Hatter looked thoughtful for a moment, pondering on whether he should tell Alex about the other Alices before he then said in a said tone, "The Queen had gotten the others already, there is one from each Card house."

"She's already gotten them? You mean I'm the only one?" Alex said before she then realized something, "But the Queen has never executed a Heart… is it possible that _she _is the Alice of the Hearts?"

Her eyes widened, as she thought of what the Queen could do if she was forever young, forever alive in Wonderland. Alex saw the face of the old Club woman, who seemed to know something about what Alex truly was before she was executed, and then watched as it multiplied into the screaming Spade girl, and the families she had watched walk to the Slaughter Court, never to come back.

"You worry too much, Alex. Fret not, if the Queen was an Alice, she wouldn't be so scared of death, and she wouldn't kill people for treason as often as she does. There is one thing the Queen fears and that is death. Alices don't fear their deaths, only the ones of their loved-ones," Hatter grinned at her, and then he continued, "The Alice of Hearts ran off into the woods after the last known Alice, the one of Diamonds, was executed. I guess since you were so young, you wouldn't remember the _'betrayal_' of Helen Diamond and the disappearance of Matthew Heart. The Alice of Clubs was also killed for being involved with the Alice of Diamonds. They were lovers, you see."

"I remember that, Allan Club was executed when I was three, the year Alice came," Alex recalled, it had been a large scandal, the Queen screaming at Helen for betraying her and her court by running off with a lowly Club. It was odd that a girl of three would keep that in her memories for the rest of her life, but Alex did, for it was the talk of the town for many days afterwards. She then looked up at Hatter, wiping away a tear. Was it possible that she was alone? She then realized the man standing in front of her had the characteristics of a Heart, and gasped. "You are Matthew Heart, aren't you Hatter? You are the Alice of Hearts!"

"That, I may be, but when Alice came along, she called me a Hatter, and the Hatter I shall stay," Hatter said, like Alex, he didn't want to be branded as an Alice, even though he was one, and then he looked at her for a moment. "After Alice had visited me, I was frozen at six in the evening, my Alice powers taking up to protect me until another Alice came."

"But, if you ran into the woods, what were you before? I mean, you met Alice after you found that you were an Alice, didn't you?" Alex questioned, completely forgetting about what Hatter had said about questions before. She seemed to be very interested in his back-story, and Hatter smiled at her, it had been a long time since he had had somebody to talk to.

"Our powers woke the first step Alice took here. The Queen found out and she wanted to use our powers to keep her in rule forever, but Helen and Allan refused. At the time, I wasn't sure that I was an Alice, but I was close to Helen and she told me to run the day she was to be killed. She told me of you as well, but she said I couldn't take you with me, for you were too young to understand, and your Alice powers had not yet awakened. She then told me that you were to be protected by their remaining Alice until they wore off. It worked long enough to keep you a secret for twenty years."

"They died, to protect me?" Alex looked down at her hands, confused at why somebody would do something like that for her, "Why didn't they save themselves?"

"They knew why a raven was like a writing desk," Hatter told her and he took out another teacup. "Tea, Alex?"

Alex was silent for a moment before she then looked blankly at the Hatter. She couldn't believe that she had this power. Two weeks ago, she was nothing more than a seamstress in her family's shop. Now, she was an Alice, she could live as long as she wanted to, and the Queen wanted her dead, or she wanted her to obey her. And Alex then realized that the Queen had her family locked up on death's row; the perfect black mail to make Alex submit to her. She thought of Ace, and how he was only fifteen, and her parents, who didn't know what Alex really was. Alex knew that she couldn't let them die without them knowing why they were. She needed to go home and rescue them.

But she needed help, and she wasn't certain that the Hatter would jump on her rescue boat, and even if he did, she still needed more help. Alex didn't know who else would help them, the Dormouse and the March Hare were both killed years ago, for drinking tea with Alice, as was the Dodo bird, though for a different reason. Twiddledee and Dum had disappeared much like the Hatter, and the White Rabbit was locked up as well, the Queen giving him a slow, drawn out death instead of a quick clean one for betraying her, and helping Alice. There was nobody, no Spades would try to revolt again the Queen, for it would mean their deaths, and nothing that Alex could do would help them avoid that. The Diamonds were loyal to the Hearts, and the Clubs would think that she was insane.

"Hatter, I need to rescue my family," Alex said, and then Hatter looked at her for a moment, confused at why she would want to do this. Alex stared back at him, raising her eyebrows at him as he mulled it over. He then smiled a large smile at Alex as he finished thinking about what she had said.

"I like the way you think, Alex," Hatter grinned and then he took out a roll of lace from his hat, multiple colours on the roll. With scissors that he took from his sleeve, he snipped off a large red piece and then walked over to a tree. He knocked on the trunk, like it was a door, and waited for something, or somebody to come out. Alex walked over to him and then she frowned, but inside she was excited to see what would happen. The Mad Hatter tapped his foot in waiting before he knocked on the tree yet again.

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**Thanks to LilyMaeve for reviewing! Please review and thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

"What is it?" A shrill voice came from the bottom of the trunk, which swung out like a door, revealing a small squirrel that seemed to be made of yellow yarn, blazing in the dark woods. It blinked its brown bead eyes at the Hatter for a moment, before it scrambled up his leg and sat on his shoulder. "Hatter, what is it? Why did you get me up?"

"How queer," Alex muttered under her breath, looking at the yarn squirrel. "I never thought yarn could talk."

The squirrel looked at Alex for a moment, its eyes narrowing and its tall twitching in annoyance. It seemed to look Alex through, like it was inspecting her and he then asked, "Who's the girl, Hatter?"

"Alex," he said and then he handed the squirrel the piece of red lace. "Give this to Butterfly; the time has come at last. I'm sure Dee and Dum will be excited that something is finally happening; you know them, they can never sit still for that long."

"She's the Alice! Oh! The time has come! I've been waiting twenty years in that tree for this! Oh, finally an Alice again!" the squirrel rambled on as it then took the piece of lace in its mouth, excitedly, and scrambled down the Hatter. It clambered up the tree and then he looked at Alex, moving the piece of lace from its mouth waving it over its head as it then said, "You're finally here! Do not worry, help will come for you soon enough."

"What was that, Hatter?" Alex asked after the yarn squirrel had jumped on to the last tree in their sight. Hatter did nothing but smile at Alex before he then reached into his hat and clipped off another piece of lace. He handed it to her, mumbling the song about the Queen's downfall under his breath like the Cat had been. The lace was silver, and the pattern on it was made up of spades and hearts. When Alex moved it in the dim forest light, it seemed like the hearts and spades were dancing together, the silver shining very bright.

Hatter then put his scissors back up his sleeve and he put the roll of lace in his hat. Straightening the hat on his head, he skipped his own piece of silver lace in his breast pocket of the green waistcoat and then picked up a stick. The branch then shaped itself into a black walking cane with a curved handle covered in green velvet.

"Keep that for when you are in danger, Alex, inside the pocket watch should be a good safe place for it," Hatter said, twirling his new cane in his fingers. He then held his arm out to Alex, "I think it's time we visit the Dark Queen, and maybe we could ask her if she would like some tea."

"Hatter, what will the lace do to help me?" Alex wondered and then she took the Hatter's arm. She then realized it was one of the questions that the Hatter would not answer, and she sighed. They began to walk back to Town of Cards, past the broken tea table, the Hatter frowning as he picked up a broken teapot and inspected it, raising it above his head and pouring the left over tea that was now merely black water on the ground. He then shook his head, and dropped the pot, causing it to smash like the other cups had done around him.

Alex didn't know exactly where they were, but she knew where they were going, and she trusted the Hatter to get her there. Night fell faster than Alex remembered, but maybe it was because she had somebody to talk to. When they decided to make camp, Alex reached into her bag and discovered that she had a kettle and some tea leaves. With a smirk on her face, as the fire grew higher, Alex took out the kettle and asked, "Tea, Hatter?"

The Hatter smiled his tea stained smile at her as he sat down, and then gave a small laugh. He set his cane (which he did not use to walk that much so Alex wondered why he had it) down and then said, "Tea would be nice. Very, very nice."

"Hatter, do you know when help is going to come?" Alex inquired after she came back from filling the kettle with water from a nearby stream and then set the kettle on the fire before she sat next to him. Hatter did not reply for quite some time, so Alex then began to rip the remainder of the loaf of bread into two equal pieces. Handing him one with a little of the blackberry jam her mother had given her on it, she then took a bite of her bread.

Since the Hatter had not answered, Alex began to rummage in her bag, looking at the supplies she had for the rest of the journey. She internally cursed herself for being ignorant of how much food she truly needed on this journey; wasting so much the week she had spent sitting on the outskirts of the woods, planning on hoodwinking the Queen. Now, she only had five strips of dried meat, jam and a handful of dried fruit remaining for the two of them on this one-week journey. She also had the tea, but she had no sugar for it, and it would be extremely bitter.

The Hatter slowly bit into his piece of bread, looking to Alex like he was pondering about something. In the firelight, Alex couldn't help but notice how strange the fire looked when it was reflecting in his mad, golden brown eyes. He finished his bread, and without looking at Alex, his eyes set in the fire, he said, "It should be coming soon. Dee and Dum will argue on which way to go, they always do, but they will come just as well as the others."

The kettle then began to whistle, telling then that the water had boiled, and Alex got to her feet, taking it off if the fire. She then poured it in the cups that already had little tealeaves in each of them. They sat in silence as they watched their tea steep, and after it had cooled enough for them to drink. Before Alex had taken a sip of her tea, Hatter took it from her and added some sugar, a smile on his face.

"That is how you like it, right Alex?" Hatter smirked from over his teacup, and he then took a sip of the plain liquid, his nose wrinkling slightly as he then pulled it back from his face; for it was very hot. He then smiled as he said, "Finally tea time."

"Hatter, I'm surprised that you are not sick of tea," Alex laughed a little at his startled expression, "You've been drinking it for twenty years straight!"

"Tea is an enjoyable drink, no matter how long you have been drinking it," Hatter told her, drinking the rest of the tea in his cup in one gulp before he set down his cup and continued to stare into the fire. Alex took a small sip from her cup, and she then smiled at the Hatter.

"Hatter, shall I take the first watch? There surely should be some of the Queen's guard out looking for you, as there has been since your encounter with Alice, or maybe since your escape," Alex said to him, and then she looked at her hands. Two weeks ago, these hands belonged to a seamstress, and they were soft, with a few small scars where she had poked herself with a needle when she was a little girl, practicing. Now, they were rough and ragged, with multiple cuts and scrapes from grasping on trees, and falling on rocks. She then smiled to herself as she saw that she had some burn marks on them.

"Alex, I'll watch," Hatter said, adding another log on the fire that he seemed to be so fascinated by. Alex shook her head at him, and then took his empty cup, rinsing it out with the left over water from the kettle before she put it back into her bag.

"Hatter, you've been at tea time for twenty years, as far as I am concerned, people don't sleep at tea time," Alex said, and the Hatter suddenly yawned. His head drooped, like the weight if twenty years was pushing down on his head, before he nodded to Alex and lay down. He shifted slightly as he then got comfortable on the ground, a couple of flowers draping over his nose as he then put his hat over his face.

Before he had fallen asleep, Hatter then said, "Wake me up if anything comes, or if something happens. Immediately, no matter who they are."

"I promise Hatter," Alex said, but the Hatter had fallen asleep before the first word had slipped through her lips. Without the Hatter to talk to, Alex was extremely bored, and she then went into her bag. Taking out the needle, thread and scrap fabric she had packed as a reminder of home, Alex then began to sow an armband. She finished as the crescent moon above her turned around into a smile. Alex looked up to see the Cheshire Cat's smile floating down from where the moon used to be. She looked around and then saw that the moon was actually still hiding in the trees. She looked at the smile, and then said "Hello, Cat, come to steal my stuff again?"

"Why, Alex," a head appeared along with the smile, and then his forearms. The half cat then lay down on the grass as his lower half appeared, his smile never faltering as he looked at Alex's bag, taking it up in his paws, teasingly. "I see you've found your other Alice."

Alex frowned and put her hands on her hips after she stood up, reaching for her bag. The Cheshire Cat dropped the bag on her head, and Alex sat back down on the ground before she realized something. "Now you can't be calling me Alice, or we'd get confused!"

"The Hatter may be an Alice, but his powers are worn down," Cheshire Cat told her and Alex looked at him confused. What did he mean that the Hatter's powers were worn down? But now that she thought about it, the Hatter hadn't done much with his Alice powers; she was the only one who had done anything with them; making the watch and the map work. If the Hatter had been fine, then he would have made then work by himself. The Cat did not seem to notice that Alex was thinking and then he flashed out a small piece if red lace from his claws, "The Alices need help."

Alex nodded and then she turned from her place to shake the Hatter awake, finally remembering what he had said before about waking him up when somebody came, no matter who they were. Personally, Alex thought that the Hatter should have just slept a bit more, since he had asked her to do so, she would. She gently took hold of his shoulders and then said, "Hatter, Hatter!" in a hushed voice.

The Hatter woke up, sitting up so fast that his hat, which had stayed on his face when he was sleeping, fell off and he then had to reach down to pick it up. He then saw Cat, who was only a head now, grinning at the man, and sighed. "Ches, you come at the most inconvenient times."

"Hatter," The Cheshire Cat made his front claws appear, and the lace was still in between his claws, as he then smiled at him again, taking the lace in his teeth, he then swallowed it completely before he then continued, "You do realize I am the reason why the Alice is here?"

Hatter yawned and gave the Cat a sceptical glare, before he then rummaged around for his teacup, tipping it over his head to see if there was any tea left in it. He then looked at Alex, as if to ask what the Cat had said was true. Alex nodded at him, making the Hatter frown, and said, "Cat was the one who lead me to you, I was planning on waiting off the time and coming back two days after the three weeks were over, to not be suspicious..."

Hatter then frowned at this statement; he didn't want the Cat to have something to hold against him, but he couldn't change what had been done. He turned back to Cheshire Cat before he then asked, "The others? When ate they coming?"

"Soon, Hatter, very soon," Cat appeared completely before he then was only a smile.

"Would you like some tea?" Hatter then said and Alex smiled at him before she yawned. The Hatter's golden brown eyes flitted to Alex before he then looked at the Cat. "Ches, we need some sleep, not just me, Alex too."

"I'll watch, Hatter," Cat smiled at him (seeing as he was only a smile) and then his eyes appeared, looking at Alex, "Get some sleep, Alices."

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**Thanks to K9olaquia and LilyMaeve for reviewing! Sorry for the rather late update and the short chapter; I've been sick this week... bleeeh! Anyways, thanks for reading, and please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

"Is that Alice?" Alex stirred in her sleep, hearing a strange voice talking to somebody. She didn't open her eyes; instead she tried to get more sleep, mentally blocking out the voice as she then curled up, trying to remain in her unconscious form.

"It's an Alice!" Another voice said, similar to the first one, and Alex groaned, trying to stay asleep. She rolled over, so her head was lying down on its side and brought her hands to cover her exposed ear. The voice then said in an irate tone of voice, "You're waking her up!"

"No, you're waking her up!" The first voice accused and then they were both hushed at. Alex sat up, blinking and rubbing her eyes, yawning at the new crowd that were looking down at her. Alex yawned again, and she then brought her hands down, still feeling very tired, wanting to sleep a bit more but knowing that she couldn't.

"What time is it?" Alex asked, looking up at the two boys who were leering over her. Their faces were identical, and they looked as old as Ace was. Their blond hair was shaggy, dangling in front of their green eyes. This confused Alex; she had never seen somebody who didn't fit the Card family standards, but she overlooked it. They were both fairly lanky, and they were quite tall for boys, but maybe they just seemed it because Alex was sitting down. It seemed as though Alex was shorter than most of the boys in Wonderland, even if they were younger than her.

"Dee, Dum, apologize to Alex now, she could have used some more sleep!" a butterfly sitting a little away from them scolded as Hatter came back with the kettle, putting it on the fire before he turned to Alex and the mouth if the Cheshire Cat. The Cat then floated towards Alex, as if he wanted something from her. She waved him off as he then began to circle her head like an annoying bug.

"We're sorry, Lady Alice!" they said in unison, and then they turned to the Hatter, to help him take out the teacups or, as it seemed, to keep in them in the bag. As they turned, Alex noticed that they had small pieces of red lace tacked onto the breast pocket of their identical navy blue waistcoats.

"Dee and Dum?" Alex said, and they both turned from the Hatter to Alex. The Hatter took this opportunity to take out the teacups that the twins were trying their hardest to keep in the bag. He gave a little smile as he then poured out some tea. Alex did not seem to be bothered by the attention the toy boys were giving her, looking at her like she was something foreign in this world, like Alice had been. Instead she pretended that it was nothing and continued, "As in _the _Twiddledee and Twiddledum?"

"Or Twiddledum and Twiddledee," one of them said, probably Dum because of the statement. He then bowed a bit, as did his brother "At your service, Lady Alice."

"It's Alex," Alex sighed, picking up her sown armband and the looking at the new crowd that had camped here. The Cheshire Cat then took to teasing Dee and Dum seeing as Alex was not being a very fun person to tease. The Butterfly rolled his eyes at them for a moment before he then fanned his wings to get the horse flies and bread and butter flies off of them. The flies scattered around and a couple of them landed on Alex's head. They stayed there as Hatter then poured boiling water into the teacups and then looked up at Alex. He smiled when he saw the flies on her head, and then waved them away, spilling some of the tea in the cups.

"Care for some tea?" he asked, as he then handed Dee and Dum their cups. Both of the boys ignored the Cat, who then started to spit on their heads, and then took the tea from the Hatter, taking a sip of the brown liquid. Their noses crinkled and but they continued drinking it. When the Hatter turned, they both threw the tea it the cups up at the Cat, who turned invisible to dodge it.

Alex giggled at them as Cat made his paws reappear so he could take the cup from the Hatter. The large, blue butterfly frowned at the Hatter, the expression one that Alex thought rested on his face quite often as Hatter set the tea cup down so the butterfly could drink it. Hatter then came up to Alex and handed her the second last cup. "It's the way you like it," he told her as he did this. He then sipped his tea as Cat did the same, turning into only a mouth to do so.

"Introductions are much overdue," Hatter said from over his tea, which was shaking in his hands as he said this. A grin spread across his face as he then said, "Everyone, this is Alex the Alice of Spades, Alex, this is everybody."

"Um... Nice to meet you," Alex stammered looking down at her feet yet again, unsure of who she was actually talking to for the only people she had met before were the Hatter and the Cheshire Cat (who, technically wasn't a person.) She didn't know what they were like, therefore, she did not know how to respond and took to responding the way that most people would.

"At least this one has manners," the butterfly said in a drawling voice, which Alex personally thought did not suit a butterfly at all. He turned his glare from Alex to the Hatter, and took a sip of his tea before he then said, "Unlike another Alice I know of."

"You flatter me so," Hatter smiled at him, completely unabashed at his past statement (Alex assumed it was because he was insulted by the butterfly more often than not.) He then held up the teapot and inquired, "More tea?"

"I swear, Hat, if you make us drink tea again," Dee began angrily as he then went to throw his teacup at the Hatter, who then turned, smiling a little smile at the teenaged boy. Dee shuddered back at the Hatter and lowered the teacup as the Hatter then walked up to him, waving his green-velvet cane around in his hands dangerously.

"Dee, it was my Alice powers that kept you this young now, after twenty years," Hatter's smile did not falter as he then poured Dee another cup of tea before he then turned and refilled Dum's. Alex saw Dee and Dum shiver silently as they took their cups back from the Hatter and sipped on their tea, for the Hatter had watched over them until they did so. When the Hatter turned to Alex, they then dumped out the tea, and spit on the ground, trying to get the taste out of their mouths.

"Hatter, you have kept them young for twenty years?" Alex asked, raising her eyebrows at him as Cat then completely appeared, resting in the air beside Alex, pouring little drops of tea on the ground next to her. The girl of Spades then reached up and scratched the Cheshire Cat between his ears. The Cheshire Cat purred as she did this, and then he looked at Hatter. He then stuck out his tongue to reveal the lace he had swallowed previously.

Completely ignoring Alex's question, Cat then stuck his tongue back in his mouth before he said, "You sent the red lace, Hatter, not the blue. You have found the Alice, or in this case, she has found you, but you do not seem to need help."

"The yarn squirrel didn't seem to know why either," Dum recalled as he then ran a hand throw his blond hair; his blue eyes glazed over as if he was remembering something. He then turned to his twin, and questioned, "Did he, Dee?"

"No," Dee said, looking at his now-empty teacup with a frown before he then looked at the Hatter expectantly, "What is the matter? Is Lady Alex hurt?"

"Not that," Hatter winked at her a grin spreading across his face as he then said, "She wants to save her family."

"And where does her family happen to be?" the butterfly fanned his wings, an irate look on his face as he did so. It was clear that he didn't want to get side-tracked from the quest they had currently planned out right now, but he didn't want to protest against the Alices, for they were his only hope for true freedom. He was tired of running away from the Card Soldiers, and not being able to fly in the sky in fear of being spotted by the Queen.

"The Heart Dungeons," Hatter looked overjoyed at this statement and both Twiddles dropped their cups, which happened to land on the rocks below them, making the cracked china shatter into hundreds of small pieces. Both of them gaped at Alex for a moment, as she then looked back down at her feet.

"You're mad," they both told Alex, and the Hatter began to giggle like a child at Christmas, it was clear that he was clearly enjoying the fact that both of them now thought that Alex had something wrong with her. Alex felt her face flush as they continued to stare at her.

"Surviving that is highly unlikely," Butterfly put in, as he then scowled at Alex before he handed his teacup back to the Hatter, who was currently going around and getting them.

"Guards are always there," Cat reckoned as he then appeared on the Hatter's shoulders. He then whispered in his ear, "And you are dangling Wonderland's hope right under the Dark Queen's nose."

"Fetching, isn't it?" Hatter grinned at them and then they all sighed. Alex watched them as they turned away, disappointment coursing through her like it had been added into her bloodstream. She then felt tears wash down her face, as she hung her head, trying to not show them to the others. She brought her hand to her face to wipe them away, ignoring the fact that the Hatter was now looking at her, a curious expression on his face as if he wondered what tears were.

She then got to her feet, running away from the others into the dark woods of Joker's Forest. She didn't need them to help her; she would do it on her own. The Queen still didn't know for sure that she was actually an Alice, and the Queen had promised to let them go if she returned. Alex would rather die than have her family die for her, even if that meant that she would keep Wonderland in darkness for quite a long time.

Alex wasn't sure of where to go, and the Hatter still had the map, but she had a general idea of which direction she would go. She ran without stopping in the unfamiliar woods. She heard many animal cries, and twigs cracked behind her too many times for her to feel comfortable, but she did not look over her shoulder.

A hand then grabbed her, whirling her around. Alex almost let a scream escape her lips, but it was only the Hatter, holding a finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet. She looked at him for a moment, before she realized that she was still crying, and she brought up a hand to destroy her tears. Alex then ripped herself out of the Hatter's grip, full intentions of running away from them to go back to the Town of Cards, and she stumbled a few steps back.

"I'm not going back!" Alex said in a furious whisper, not trusting to use a louder voice, for it would seem as though she was picking a fight with them. The others came around them, looking extremely out of breath and worried about Alex. Alex noticed that the only one not there was the butterfly. She could picture him fanning his giant wings, muttering curses under his breath, directed towards her.

"Lady Alex, think of what you are doing!" both Dee and Dum exclaimed, and Alex watched as the Cheshire Cat shook its head at her, slowly, as if to tell her that it was a bad idea to be doing this. She bit her lip as she then looked at the Hatter. Only Hatter seemed to be ready to go, smiling his tea stained smile at her.

"I _have_ thought about what I am doing!" Alex cried back, and then she frowned at all of them before she brought herself up to her full (but still short) height. She looked at them, her eyes steely as she then continued "I'm not going to hide away while my friends and family die, like you did! I'm going, and you can't stop me! So if you want to help me, then come, if you don't, then leave me alone!"

They were shocked in silence as Alex turned and began to run through the woods again. Hatter pulled out the Alice Map and then checked the path she was to go. The silver line lifted itself off of the page and then resettled itself, leading them straight to the Hearts Dungeons. Hatter then smiled a triumphant as he showed the map to the rest of them, "Well, I guess this Alice needs to go to Heart Dungeons, so I guess, she'll need some help."

Dum sighed at the Hatter, wondering what they had just gotten themselves into, and then he called, "Ches, could you get butterfly?"

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**Thanks to LilyMaeve, and K9olaquia for reviewing! Sorry for the long wait, I was terribly sick and I think I'm getting sick again! Sorry about that! Anyways, thanks for reading, and please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

Alex heard nothing behind her, and she then realized that there was no way she was going to make it without her pack, which she had left at the camp site. Alex was tempted to curl up and cry, but she knew she needed to save her family. Crying wouldn't do anything to help her now, so she wouldn't do it. She kept on running, and even though she didn't want to, and she tried not to, tears fell down her face. She brought a hand up to stop them, as a large butterfly swooped over her. She was grabbed by her waist and hauled up onto it. Alex almost screamed yet again, but she only saw Dee and Dum's smiling faces.

"No tears, Lady Alex," Dee smiled at her, reaching his hand out and wiped the stray tear from her face. Alex felt herself smiling back at him, and she then gave both of them a hug.

"Thanks for coming," She whispered to them and then the Cheshire Cat came gliding along beside them.

"What about my hug, hmm, Alex?" he asked, as he then lay on his back, smiling at Alex.

"I'm sure you'd disappear if I tried!" Alex laughed and Cat turned into nothing more but a smile, floating through the air. It was a rather queer sight to Alex, but she was already getting used to these kinds of things, for she had been in Joker Forest for quite some time. Little to her knowledge, she was actually getting pushed deeper into Joker Forest by the ground, which rippled and moved like a stream, knowing that Alex was needed by the Hatter. So when she looked out at the forest below her, she gasped, wondering how she got so deep into the Forest.

"You, my dear, are madder than the Mad Hatter," the butterfly told her as he flapped his wings, soaring higher up into the air into the cloud cover so they wouldn't be spotted by any of the Queen's flying spies that scoured the Forest, looking for any of the people who had run from her City, or those who had spoken to Alice when she first came.

"I'll take that as a complement, thanks," Alex replied and the Hatter gave a small giggle, still holding his kettle, pouring himself some tea. Alex looked around for her own bag, realizing that she had forgotten it back at the camp, only to have it dumped into her arms by Dee and Dum.

"You brought that arm band you were working on with you, but not your bag," Dum stated, and then Dee finished for him.

"So we brought it for you."

"Thank you yet again," Alex told them and she then looked at the armband. Reaching into her bag, she took out some more fabric with a smile on her face. She was glad that her companions had finally decided to help her with this. After they saved her family, she would be ready to do whatever they needed her to do. She then took out the pocket watch and asked, "How long until we are at Town of Cards?"

"Tomorrow morning," the butterfly replied, and Alex gasped in shock.

"How is it that I've gotten so far out in the woods? I only moved on the first day!" She exclaimed and then the Cheshire Cat swooped down at her, his eyes appearing as he then smiled at Alex. He knew how the Forest worked very well, and he explained to her how it moved. Alex nodded at him, happy that she wasn't sleep walking or completely insane as she then began to sew. Dee and Dum sat next to her, watching as she finished yet another armband. They were made of white fabric, and there were spades and teacups sown on it; made if black and red fabric.

She had finished six by the time they had stopped for lunch, and she then handed them out before they then went back into the sky, travelling as fast as they could, ignoring the butterfly's silent complains. "Here, as thanks for helping me with this, you don't know how much this truly means to me."

"Why Alex, they are simply splendid," Hatter smiled as he put it on his arm, as did the others. He then held up the teapot that he had been fiddling with for the past couple minutes, and inquired, "Tea?

"No thank you, Hatter," Alex replied kindly as Dee and Dum both put them on the same arm, so they would still be identical, grinning at Alex for a moment, enjoying the gift. The butterfly scowled as Cat fixed the band on one of his legs, though after Cat had turned, Alex was sure that she saw him looking at the band with a smile on his usually emotionless face. Cat was wearing his on his arm as well, and strangely it would disappear as he did; which was something Alex couldn't understand but decided to not question.

"So, the plan to get in the dungeons, you do have one, right Alice?" Butterfly looked at Alex as she then dropped the back she was holding. Luckily, it didn't fall off of the flying Butterfly, for then she wouldn't have any of her food. Panic spiked through her heart as she then realized that they all would need food. She looked around at them, and saw that they all had bags slung over their shoulders (well, except Butterfly and Cat,). She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw this, for she didn't have to feed all of them all with the small amount of food she had in her bag. But she didn't think of needing to make up a plan, she had been occupied in making the armbands.

"Um..." Alex bit her lip as Dee and Dum then had to drink some of Hatter's tea; the Mad Hatter looking quite scary as he leered over them, making sure they drank it. The two boys glared daggers into the Hatter's head after they were done drinking it and Alex frowned at them. She hadn't known that she was the plan maker, but she then assumed that they thought that since she was the one who wanted to go there, then she would have a plan. How wrong they were at this moment, Alex hadn't come up with anything, she didn't even know how to get out of there, and she didn't want to remember the time she spent in them.

"It seems she hasn't come up with a plan," Cat mused, floating up around the twins as they then spat out the tea they had just drunk off of Butterfly's back and onto the ground. "More like a plan as you go type, hmm, Alex?"

"Well…" Alex looked down at her shoes yet again, as she pondered on how to get Ace out of the dungeons. After a couple minutes she then came up with a vague plan, "Cat could maybe go in, invisible and get the keys..."

"And maybe Hatter could make the Watch die of tea overdose," Dum said sarcastically, still spitting out the tea on the ground below them. The Hatter took his cane, whirled it around over his head dangerously before he then whacked Dum over the head with it. The boy frowned at the Hatter, and then threw the teacup at him. The Hatter then dodged it, and watched in dismay as it then fell off of the butterfly onto the ground.

"Cat, you could then tell us where my parents are," Alex said, thinking fast and coming up with a plan in five seconds that was so simple that it could actually work. She then thought about getting more people to help her out, and then remembered the cries of the White Rabbit during her stay. He was the one who had lead Alice into Wonderland, and he could help them if he was freed. Alex's eyes widened as she then asked, "Are you acquainted to the White Rabbit?"

"The White Rabbit?" Dee looked at his brother, who was currently fending off Hatter's cane with his bag. It was clear that the blond haired teen had never seen the rabbit, though he might have heard his name once or twice, he was very famous in Wonderland.

"You mean the fellow who's always late," Hatter took out a handkerchief, wiping the end if his cane like Dum's germs would hurt him and then he sat down on the butterfly, "Fixed his watch, I did, when Alice had visited me for tea. Poor chap, ran into a bit of trouble with the Queen, for leading Alice here."

"So, if we rescued him, would he be on our side?" Alex continued, and she then looked at Hatter, who then shrugged at her for a moment as he then brought his cane over his head to protect himself from the stick Dum had just thrown at his head. It bounced off the cane and then hit Cat in the face. The Cat reared on Dum, and the Hatter just sat there, looking at Alex, a smug expression on his face. Alex knew that any help they could get would be great, even if they had been rotting in jail for twenty years and had fallen into the insane category.

Hatter looked ponderous for a moment, as he then ducked another stick thrown by Dum before he then smiled at her. "He has always been on our side, and for what we will need him for next, he has to be."

Hatter smirked at them for a moment, a small, menacing smirk that made Alex shiver a little, and made Dee and Dum take a few steps back, dreading the Mad Hatter's cane. The Mad Hatter then took out the Alice Map, holding it upside down, and checked it again, looking at the Queen's face in particular, watching as it grew angry, yelling soundlessly as her hair then fell out of the styling from all of her yelling. He his smile lessened slightly as he thought that they were going to go near her soon; remembering what she had done to Helen and Allan.

"The Dark Queen isn't looking that great," Hatter commented, hiding his concern as he said this and then he rolled up the map again, shoving it in his hat. "It will be so perfect, shaking her up like this. She seems to have lost a few of her marbles… perhaps we can lose some more for her"

"Hatter, maybe all she needs it a cup of tea," Alex joked a bit but she then looked in the direction of Town of Cards, the tall towers of the Queen's palace already shaping in the distance. Dread seeped into her heart as she saw that the Queen was so close to her, yet, she was so far away. She didn't want to know what it would be like if the Queen got her hands on Alex, knowing that she was an actual Alice and could keep her young forever. She then said, "She will be furious, and she will be in a rage. She might kill half if her court."

"And that would do us good," Cat's mouth smiled at them as he floated around in the air, not riding on the back of the butterfly. He then yawned a little bit, before he continued "The less court members she has, the better for us. Then she won't be able to control as many spies as she could before."

Alex looked at them, shocked that they valued human lives as little as they valued the Queen's morals. She then looked down at her feet, and began to play with her fingers, thinking of a way to warn the court without getting caught by them. All of the court was loyal to the Queen, and they wouldn't risk dying to help Alex because she said that the Queen would kill them if she got away. They would then just take her to the Queen so they wouldn't have to risk dying at any cost. She couldn't come up with another scenario, and she let her shoulders slump, feeling defeated that she was about to be as heartless as the Queen. But she couldn't help it; she had to do this for Wonderland.

"After we get out of the jail, then we'll need to escape on Butterfly," Dum finished as his brother nodded at him; a praising smile on his face. This plan sounded so easy, and Alex had a feeling that it would go horribly awry. Butterfly, however, did not look pleased at this statement, instead giving an annoyed huff and glared at the twins.

"I am guessing that my opinion is not something that will be taken accounted of," Butterfly sighed and Alex giggled at him. For some reason, she really liked the antisocial butterfly, probably because whatever he had to say was usually important, and if it wasn't heavily layered with sarcasm; those comments amused Alex greatly. Humour was something that was lacking in this world right now.

"Right now, chaps, we get a cup of tea to calm the nerves," Hatter smiled menacingly at Dee and Dum, who shuddered and then threw the teacups Hatter had given them out down off of the butterfly in protest. Hatter frowned at them, and Alex laughed as he frowned at the ground below him; probably grieving the loss of his precious teacups.

Butterfly then began to scold Cat for riding on him and Cat replied it was because he was tired. Alex raised an eyebrow at him, hardly believing that he was tired, but when he curled up and slept, he proved her wrong. Since Cat had slept during the ride, he was to take first watch as they camped. He grumbled in complaint until Hatter then tried to hit him upside the head with his cane; Cat dodging it and then floating in the air above them as they tried to sleep.

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**Regarding last chapter in the confusion of Dee and Dum's eyes. They are green, but in the original draft of this story, they were blue, but I changed them. I guess I didn't edit it closely enough. I'll go back and fix that eventually. BUT THEY ARE GREEN and they shall be for the rest of the story.**

**Anyways, thanks to LilyMaeve, and K9olaquia for reviewing! Sorry for the late update, I was sick (again, as always) and I had exams that I needed to study for. Thanks for being patient! **


	8. Chapter 8

"Alice! Alice!" Alex heard herself cry out in her sleep as she then found stairs along the side of the cloud wall. She ran as fast as she could up the stairs, trying to beat the red liquid that was rising rapidly up towards her. Arms flashed out from the red, and one of them grabbed around her ankle, causing Alex to fall down on her face. The red liquid finally caught up to her, as the arms wrapped around her body, and pulled her under. The liquid was thick, and when Alex opened up her eyes, she let out a scream that caused her to lose all of the air she had stored in her lungs. But she had a good reason to scream.

The arms that wrapped around her were the people she had seen the Queen kill, though their heads were not attached to their bodies. She recognized the old Club woman, and the screaming Spade girl, and saw a small body that looked much like the baby Alex had seen getting taken to its death in its mother's arms slowly dragged its way up her body. She fought their holds, but even in their deaths, they were strong and they pulled her deeper into the red.

She had started to feel light headed when somebody else's arms curved their way around her body. They were warmer than the cold, dead ones that then shot off of her, and she opened her eyes to see the face of the Hatter smiling down at her. She went to wrap her arms around his neck, to pull herself closer to the only living thing that was also with her, but his head then lolled off, and was floating around in the red. The dead Hatter then held her closer, squeezing her until she passed out because of lack of oxygen.

Alex shot off of the ground, holding back a loud scream as she did so, covering her mouth with a hand to muffle the small whimpers that escaped her lips as she recalled the dream. It was much like the one she had the night before the Queen accused her of being Alice, and she wondered if they meant anything. Hopefully not, for she didn't want the Hatter to be killed; he was one of her friends, if she could call him that. Tears slowly dripped down her face, and she realized that she had been crying in her sleep. She shook her head, as she then wiped them away; crying was something she was doing too often nowadays.

Alex wrapped her blanket tighter around her shoulders, not wanting to fall asleep again, but getting a little cold as the wind rippled across the forest. She wondered if the land had moved during her sleep, but she assumed that they wouldn't get moved back too far, so she paid it no mind. But her dream was something she couldn't forget. She then saw Cat float down to her, and he then made his face appear so she didn't have to look at socket less eyes and a mouth. "Dreams, hmm, Alex?"

"More than you'd understand," Alex told him, rubbing the back of her neck, and then bringing her hands to run through her unruly raven hair, trying to destroy the knots in it as she did so. Sighing, she then tied it up into her usual pigtails with her spade hair ties though they weren't as neat as they could have been, and stood up. Since Alex had no intention of falling back asleep she then said, "I'll take the watch, Cat, you can sleep now."

"Alex, surely you'll need rest for tomorrow, hmm?" Cat questioned as he then fully materialized, lying down on the grass, beside Alex, cocking his head to the side in question. Alex shook her head in protest, and Cat then closed his yellow-green eyes. His breathing slowed, calming Alex as it did so, as he fell into a light sleep within five seconds.

"I don't think I'll get anymore sleep if I tried," Alex gave an unsporting yawn after she had said this, but nobody was awake to hear it, leaving only Alex to her thoughts. She shuddered again as she thought of the dead Club woman who saw so much promise in her, and as she felt the arms wrapping around her body, crushing her, squeezing all of the air out of her lungs. Alex's eyelids did not try to cover her eyes once, not protesting being awake as she then started to hum the song of the Queen's downfall yet again.

After a couple of hours of just sitting there, Alex was curious to what time it was, so she took out the pocket watch and checked what it said. Prodding out of the back of the silver pocket watch was a piece of silver lace that only somebody who was looking for it would find. The clock told her that it was almost dawn; so Alex then began to check in the food packs, deciding on what to make for their breakfast. In Butterfly's pack she saw a pipe, and then she grinned at his sleeping form, before she then took a few eggs from the bag. She then decided that if she did not make any tea, then Hatter would think her absolutely mad. But, Alex reckoned to herself, that wouldn't be so bad if you are with other madder people.

The whistling kettle was what woke the Hatter and the Twiddles, all of whom shot up, looking startled before Dee and Dum slumped back down on the ground, trying to get more sleep. The Mad Hatter, however, watched as Alex poked at the cooking eggs and stood up to go meet her. He then sat back down as he got there, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"Tea time already?" he groggily said as he then looked at her for a moment before he gave a yawn. Alex poured him a cup of tea, and then handed it to him, a smile on her face. "You do make lovely tea."

"It's not me, Hatter, it is the tea leaves," Alex told him as she then gave him a small portion of egg, before she went to leer over the half-asleep twins. She poked at them, she kicked them, and she yelled in their ears, but they wouldn't wake up. She sighed, putting her hands on her hips, trying to remember what she would say to Ace when he was acting like this. The mention of her little brother in her mind made her heart crack, but she then remembered what she would do in the time that they were together; which seemed to be a life time ago. "Wake up if you want food, or I'll give it all to Cat."

Both boys shot up out of the bed, and Alex started to laugh at them, almost waking Butterfly in the process. She stopped her laughing as the insect moved his wings in his sleep, as Cat then floated by her.

"But you weren't going to that already, Alex?" Cat floated over and then snatched at the eggs. Alex dodged him, but nearly fell on her face, if it wasn't for Dee and Dum's waiting arms. They both smiled identical grins at her as they helped her upright, and Alex thanked them before she then handed out their portion of eggs, looking very flustered. She looked at the Cheshire Cat, who was wearing his begging face (which was more scary then actually cute), before she then gave him some.

"What about Butterfly?" Alex wondered looking at the small amount of eggs that were left in the pan. There wasn't really enough for two other beings to eat. She had been up all night and she had been snacking a bit, though she was starting to get hungry, but Butterfly would need the food if he wanted to. "Should I wake him?"

"No, Alex, you eat the rest," Hatter told her, sipping his tea, a smile on his face. He finished his cup of tea and then sighed, before he then told Alex yet again, "Really lovely tea, Alex, I insist you have some Dee, Dum."

"Hat, no," Dee grumbled through his food and Hatter reached for his walking stick again. The twins jerked away from him instinctively, and Alex knew that she should probably stop it, because she needed the twins to actually be alive when they stormed Heart Dungeons.

Alex then cut off the fight with her "Are you sure?" as she looked back at the sleeping Butterfly, who was currently getting poked by Cat, who was only a grin and his front arm. Alex frowned at the Cat, and was about to walk over to him to shoo him off before the Cheshire Cat then spoke.

"He doesn't like eggs," Cat said as he then floated over Alex, looking at the eggs with a devious face (seeing as he was only a face now) before he frowned as Alex then began to fork the eggs quickly into her mouth. She didn't want to risk Cat stealing any of her food, because she knew that he would if he had the chance. She nodded as thanks to the Mad Hatter after he gave her a cup of tea, making it the way she liked. (She still didn't know how he knew what she liked, but decided not to care about it since and added it to the pile of stuff she wondered but didn't care about enough to push it.)

Slowly, Butterfly stirred, his wings slowly fanning, making leaves and twigs fly up. All of the others ducked the array of items that were getting blown at them (though Cat just disappeared), Hatter leaping to catch the tea cups Dee and Dum threw into the whirl wind, hoping to destroy yet another pair of Hatter's cups so they wouldn't have to drink any more of his tea. The boys then had to run away from Hatter's cane, since the Hatter had missed the cups and they had shattered on the ground.

Butterfly then accepted a cup of tea from Hatter after the former heart had hit Dee and Dum on the head, which had an unnatural amount of honey added into it. Taking the pipe out of his bag after he was done his tea, Butterfly then began to smoke, creating odd shapes in the air. It then occurred to Alex that she was in the presence if legends of Wonderland; the lost Mad Hatter, Twiddledee and Twiddledum. The ever-mysterious Cheshire Cat and the Butterfly that gave Alice her escape from the Queen's court, with the mushroom. What made it seem more unreal was that they treated her with such a respect.

Alex then waved her hand in front of her face, to get the smoke the butterfly had blown into get face away. She coughed, earning a few glares from the others, less Cat, to the smoking butterfly; who then merely blew some more smoke out in a different direction. Cat was playing in the smoke, which was so thick it would conceal him without Cat actually disappearing. He would appear in front of Dee or Dum, causing them to jolt back in shock and then swat at him. Cat once tried to scare the Hatter, but he was at the receiving end of Hatter's cane.

They boarded on the smoking butterfly, who then had to put away his pipe so he could fly and began to fan, his wings, scattering the smoke that had clung around them, before he took off. The tall towers of the Queen's palace were so close, they could see the heart-shaped bricks on them, and they could see each individual Card Soldier lined around the bottom. The ground hadn't shifted that much during the night, so they were closer than Alex thought they would be. Alex took in a breath, and then swallowed her fear.

"Land now or they will see us," Alex told the butterfly after they had travelled for a couple of hours, who glared up at her. She sighed at him for a moment, before she then added a soft, but exasperated "Please."

"If they have not already seen us," Butterfly muttered sceptically as he landed on the forest floor, causing animals to scurry away in fright. They all crept along the edge of the woods, (though Cat floated like usual) looking at the number of guards, and accessing the small entrance, thinking of what could happen.

"This is going to be harder than I thought," Alex admitted to herself quietly, though the Hatter nodded in response to her. Alex bit her lip as the Card Soldiers walked their patrols; the same patrols they had been doing their entire existence; ever since the Queen had taken their previous lives away from them. They were empty cases, just mere puppets that the Queen manipulated.

"Stealth doesn't seem to be an option," The Hatter stated before he grinned. Alex looked at him for a moment, wondering how he could possibly fight; she then reckoned that his cane would probably inflict some damage to the Card Soldiers, though they couldn't die when they fought them. Their souls would then finally be freed, and go to the Land of Souls where they could exist in peace until the end of time. Her idea if the Hatter wielding his cane was destroyed when he handed it to her. "Use this to fight, Alex, I promise you it won't break."

"Hatter, what about you?" Alex demanded, and he then grinned at her, showing his straight, but still tea stained teeth. He reached into his hat, and looked as though he was rummaging through it, his whole arm getting swallowed by it as he did this. Alex ignored his smile, and the other's shrugs in dismissal. She looked at all of them, a worried expression masking her face as she then said "What about all of you?"

"Lady Alex, you misjudge us so, it almost hurts" Dum said, picking up two sticks, and then watching as they formed into bows. The bows were a dark, navy blue that matched their waistcoats and had golden embroidery spiralling down them. Dee was busy picking up other sticks, which formed into arrows in his hands as he did this. Alex was confused that

"Remember," Dee started as be straightened up, and handed his brother at least a dozen arrows. Dum returned the arrows with one of the bows and a sheath to hold their arrows. With a strange, excited, grin on his face, Dee then continued, "The forest is on our side."

Butterfly took out his pipe, and then began to smoke at a rapid pace, like it was part of some unmade plan that the men (butterfly and cat) in the group had made without Alex's knowledge. Slowly smoke streamed out of the trees, and fogged up the area. Shouts from the Card Soldiers were all Alex could comprehend at the moment, for she couldn't see anything. A hand gripped her shoulder, and she swung the cane, only to have it stopped by somebody. The hand on her shoulder squeezed her lightly before the person it belonged to spoke.

"We will take out the guards you go and get your family," Hatter's quiet voice came from a few feet away from her. Though it was a mere whisper, Alex heard the excitement in it; it seemed to bubble up from deep inside of him. She felt the excitement get passed onto her, and the adrenaline pumped through her veins. She almost wanted to go out into the battle, for some reason. Hatter finally let the cane fall to the ground before he continued, "Ches will come with you. Now go."

He shoved her out into the battlefield. Alex could only see a few feet in front of her, and she often relied on Cat, who somehow could see in this smoke, to tell her if a Card Soldier was coming her way. The Hatter was right; he cane never did break. Once she was almost cut down, when a roll of lace came from the fog and strangled the soldier. Cat led her into the Heart Dungeon, holding the keys that he had stolen from one of the Watch. The smoke had cleared, only to show them an unfriendly sight.

Chained to the walls of the dungeons were multiple skeletons of different animals; mostly humans. The people who were alive shrunk back away from Alex, though some of the children pointed at the Cheshire Cat, looks of awe on their faces. Alex's heart gave a pang as she looked at all of the faces she wouldn't save; children, men, women… just so many people she couldn't save.

In one corner, there was a white, sniffling, shuddering rabbit with a look of insanity in his pink, blood-shot eyes. Alex rushed over to him, and then asked, "Are you the White Rabbit? Are you the one who led Alice here?"

The rabbit looked up at Alex and then frowned, "I'm late, late, late, late…Well, I am white, I am a rabbit, and I am locked down here. For some reason, I cannot die, even though I've not been fed for twenty years. Do not mention the name ever again; she made me very, very, very, very late."

"Rabbit, I have come to let you out," Alex said, taking the keys from the Cheshire Cat and then shoving one of them into the lock. The lock did not click, so she tried again with another key, another one, and another one. She frowned at the locked before she shoved another key in.

The lock gave a satisfying click and Alex then pulled the bars open. The White Rabbit hopped out of the jail cage hesitantly before he then smiled at Alex. "Wonderland's hope has arrived… but it is so very late… and I am late too! Oh dear! I must hurry!" he scampered out of the dungeons as he exclaimed this, causing many of the prisoners to gasp.

Alex merely nodded at him, and then she rushed through the dungeons, looking for her little brother and her parents. She found them; but they were behind a large wall if Card Soldiers, the Queen, fuming as she shook in her silent rage, at the front of all of her puppets. The Cheshire Cat disappeared immediately after seeing the Queen, a look of panic in his bright eyes as he did this, but he did not leave Alex by herself before muttering, "I shall be seeing that you get some help, hmm, Alex?"

The Queen, who had not heard the Cat's muttering nor seen the legend of Wonderland whose head she had wanted for quite some time, then glared at Alex. Sweeping her long dress out of the way, she stepped closer to her. Alex's eyes couldn't help but recognize that it was she who had made that dress; in fact, she had made it on the day the Queen had locked her up. The Queen then sneered, "So you think you can get your family out, Alice dear, you aren't keeping up on our bargain, now, are you?"

In a slow composed voice, though Alex was shaking in fear, she then told the Queen sternly, "My name is not Alice, I am Alex Spade, seamstress of Her Majesty."

"Then, Alex Spade, why is it that you have broken into my dungeon if you are so innocent? Or has the Hatter called you Alice? I did tell you that once you had found him he would, and then there would be no going back for you. Why did you come?" the Queen looked down at Alex, her chin high, face smug, looking taller than she usually looked; for her red hair was curled around two wires, making a heart. Her crown was sitting in the middle of it, the blood red rubies shining, taunting Alex.

Alex heard footsteps behind her, and realized that her friends had come to her rescue. She remembered what the Rabbit had called her and then, as bravely she could muster, said, "Because I am Wonderland's hope!"

The Queen's face screwed up angrily as Alex then ducked the two arrows the Twiddles had shot at the Card Soldiers, knocking them down with their expert aim. Alex then took out the pocket watch, not having any other projectile, swinging the chain, which seemed to grow longer as she did this, expertly, and nicked the crown off of the Queen's head with the clock part of it. The woman who ruled Wonderland gasped, her face growing red as she then screamed, "Off with their heads! Off with their heads! NOW!"

"Alex!" Ace cried from his place in the cell. Her parents had pushed him against the wall, so he wouldn't be in the way of stray arrows. Alex looked at Hatter, who let the roll of lace wrap around the nearest guards to Alex as he scissored another one. He gave a nod to Alex, who nodded back before she ran through the Card Soldiers to the door. She didn't bother with the keys; instead she swung the cane hard at the lock; which gave a loud screech as she hit it before it hit the ground, tinkling as it bounced against the stone. She reached into it, and grabbed Ace by his hands, hauling him to his feet, before she then helped her parents up.

She threw the keys to the ground, and then she shouted, "Get out! Come on, mother, father, we have to move!"

Lace was everywhere, trapping the Card Soldiers, and the screaming Queen ("Off with their heads! I want their heads now!") as the group of legends and Alex's family ran back into the smoke to reach Butterfly. At first, Alex was worried that he would not be able to carry them all, but it seemed that Hatter, Dee and Dum were using the multi-coloured lace to escape. It writhed around them, creating a shield from all of the arrows fired at them. They were long away from the Queen's palace, they dared to talk.

It was the White Rabbit who first spoke, "Wonderland's hope... Who knew hope was that reckless? Late… I'm late yet again… late, oh dear, oh dear… late…"

Alex then smiled at him, keeping Ace close to her, feeding him some of the food that they had in their packs. Cat floated over her, an expectant look on his face as Alex then sighed and handed him a piece of dried meat.

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**Thanks to Jamesbirdsong and LilyMaeve for reviewing! I just wanted to say that I have gotten a tumblr, so if you want to know the happenings with me and the original start of Alex's Wonderland (Which got promptly cut off). The link is on my profile! Sorry, I was sick again. My well-being is also something that you'd get to know. Thanks for reading, and please review!**


	9. Chapter 9

"Alex," Ace said, looking at his older sister, his dark brown eyes burning with concern and admiration as he then told her "You're madder than a hatter."

"I take that as a complement," Hatter quoted Alex, smiling at Ace from his place, laced wrapped around him, in the sky. Ace gaped at the Hatter for a moment, as did her parents, and the Hatter nodded at them, a smile on his face. "I am the Mad Hatter, please to be at your service brother and parents of Alex, the Alice of Spades."

"Alex... You actually met the Mad Hatter? What is this Alice title he gave you?" Linda Spade looked at her daughter with wide eyes, panic filtering its way through her mask into her voice and then she continued; "Now the Queen will surely kill you! She'll kill us all!"

"I didn't find him, Ma," Alex sighed as she then handed Cat another piece of dried meat. The Cat smiled at her for a moment before he turned into nothing but a smile. He then disappeared completely, laughing at Alex's family's expressions. Alex then pointed to where the Cat used to be, with a slightly amused expression as Ace looked at it in wonder. Little did her little brother know, there was going to be more things like this in the near future. "He did."

"And you still owe me for it, Hatter," Cat appeared by the Hatter's head and then curled around his shoulders. The Cheshire Cat looked like this is something that he would do often when he was lazy. The Hatter smiled his tea stained smile, looking over the Cat at Alex, his golden-brown eyes glinting.

"Wonderland owes you for that," Hatter told him and then Cat disappeared again, back to Alex for another piece of dried meat. Alex sighed; she didn't think she was that important to Wonderland. She was only one of the two left over Alices, so if she was gone, there was still another one. She then remembered what the Cat had said about the Hatter's Alice powers; and what Hatter had said about keeping Dee and Dum young for twenty years. Was it that Hatter's Alice powers protected all of those who met Alice from sickness and age? If that was so, then Cat was hinting that Hatter's powers had been spent from that time.

That meant that Alex was the only one who had workable Alice powers? Alex frowned, that would mean that she was Wonderland's hope of getting freed by the Queen. She guessed that talk was not just some foolish taunting; Alex was the real deal. She shook her head and then pocketed the watch; realizing that she still had it clutched in her hand. Alex didn't want to think that she actually was the hope of the whole country, and she didn't. She then set her mind that she was only a messenger that was told to go and fetch Alice; the true hero of Wonderland.

"Alex... Alex!" Ace exclaimed and Alex jerked from her thoughts, looking at her little brother with wide eyes. The fifteen-year-old boy then smiled at his older sister; she still seemed to be herself even though she had just said a short, but epic speech and knocked the Queen's crown off of her head. She had also her family from torment. "Lost in thought, right?"

"I might be, but losing myself in thought is not great when reality seems to be a dream," Alex replied to him, dazing off, looking at the flock of spies the Queen had sent off to get them, and Ace smiled at her.

"Always speaking in riddles, I see," Ace told her, and Alex let a smile if her own show on her face. At least, though so much had happened in the past couple weeks, he was still the same Ace to Alex that he had always been.

"The unanswerable riddles are the best," Hatter told them, his lace making him go upside down over the butterfly. He had one hand on his hat, and the other still had his pair of scissors, scratches from the metal on them.

"Why so Hatter?" Ace asked, and the Alice smiled at the fifteen-year-old. Alex frowned at him, wondering what he was going to say next.

"Because making up the answers is the best part," Hatter told him sincerely, and Ace looked at Alex as if to say _'He's a nutter, this one._' "Now, would you like some tea?"

"Um..." Ace looked at Alex for help, and she shrugged as if to tell him it really didn't matter. Ace wasn't usually one for tea, but this was the Mad Hatter, so he then said, "Why not?"

Hatter poured him some tea from his place above them before his lace turned him right side up and he then cut himself lose. Butterfly made an irate noise when Hatter landed on his back, though the former Heart paid it no mind. He then sat down next to Alex, his eyes alight with excitement.

"That trick with your watch was rather nifty," Hatter told her and then Alex gave him a quick smile before she brought her hand up to the pocket the watch was in. "The Dark Queen surely must know that she is going to get over thrown now!"

The way the Hatter said it made Alex think that he was far too excited about this. If the Queen was overtaken, it would mean that the woman would most likely be killed. Even though Alex knew that the Queen probably deserved to die; it made her feel disgruntled that she would be helping on this... assassination. Alex hated the fact that she was going to be a murderer, even if it was for the better of the whole country. Maybe there was some way that they could over throw her without getting blood on their hands.

She shivered, thinking of what she had just done. At the moment, she was powered by adrenaline and nothing more. Now that it was over, she felt light headed, and she swayed slightly as she sat. The only thing she had eaten were some eggs, and now she felt as though it had been nothing.

"Alex?" Ace asked again, and Alex blinked a couple times. Hatter then caught her as she then passed out. The Hatter smiled at her, and then handed her over to Ace. He got his lace to wrap around his waist again, and he then was lifted into the sky.

"She has had a long couple of days," Hatter told him, a soft smile on his face as he looked at Alex for a moment. Ace nodded curtly and pretended that he hadn't noticed the way the Hatter looked at his sister; he wasn't quite ready to share her with another person, even though he had her to himself for fifteen years. "Let her sleep, though, we will have company soon."

Ace turned his head, and looked at the many flying Spies that the Queen had sent after them. The fifteen-year-old then turned to the Hatter; whose bright eyes then darkened, a smile growing on his face as he took out his scratched scissors. They gleamed in the sunlight, and Ace saw how sharp they were then. He shuddered, and then set Alex in his parent's hands. "I want to fight with you, Hatter, please. I'm tired of being a burden."

"I like this kid," Dum said, as he then readied his bow and arrow, glaring at the spies. Hatter looked at the cane that Alex still had clenched in her hands and then slowly removed it, giving it to Ace. Ace looked at it for a moment, twirled it around in his fingers. It was light, but sturdy, and he could easily swing it around to kill the Spies. But, there was one problem; Ace couldn't fly like the Cheshire Cat and The Mad Hatter could with his lace. So how could he fight? "Don't worry, Ace, Hatter will keep you up. He helps us too."

"Just don't let him force you drink tea too much," Dee replied, as Hatter cast a glare at him. Ace smiled at the Hatter as he then handed his teacup back to him and the Hatter gave him a grateful smile. Ace wondered why the Hatter was so happy that he had merely handed him a teacup, but he didn't know that the Hatter was used to his poor teacups getting smashed by the Twiddles. "It's such a horrid drink; I don't understand how you can drink it so many times a day, Hat."

"It's a decent drink," the Hatter said, promptly, as he then snipped his scissors together again. He looked at the flying spies, and smiled a little bit. They were birds, white and blue, clad in Diamonds with a bright red heart stained on their chest. It was clear that the birds did not naturally have the heart on their chest, and that it was painted on, for a couple of them were rather off, or the stain was dripping down their chest. Their fierce eyes were a brilliant blue; so bright it looked as though they were almost white, and they were narrowed. They squawked at the Butterfly, and a couple of them dive-bombed it, pecking at Alex.

With a flash of his scissors, the nearest birds fell to the ground, turning into dust as they went before they disappeared into golden dust that sparkled in the sun. The rest of them squawked again, looking at Butterfly and his passengers with steely eyes. Ace then watched as the lace around the Hatter and lifted him into the sky. Dee and Dum smiled as they jumped off of the blue butterfly's back. Before they could fall to their deaths, the same lace wrapped around their waist and supported them as they shot the birds.

Ace took a deep breath before he then ran full speed off of the butterfly. For a second, he was falling, his arms and legs failing as he did so, before he was yanked upwards, making his head whip back. For a second, he was amazed at the fact that he was actually in the air, and not falling to his untimely (and painful) death. He looked at the Hatter, who seemed amused that Ace was so shocked that he hadn't fallen, before he then used his cane to whack a bird out of the sky. Ace looked at it for a moment, and watched as the bird spiralled downwards; strangely, it was very entertaining.

Ace didn't know if he could move while he was being supported by the Hatter, but he saw that Dee and Dum were moving wherever they wanted to, without calling out to the Hatter to move them. Ace took a wary step in the air. It was odd that he was walking without putting his feet down on something; it seemed as though he needed a floor. But, he moved a step, and he smiled before he tried running.

At first, it was awkward; his legs falling short as he tried to hit the ground and failed, but soon, he got used to it and was moving as easily as the Hatter or the Twiddles. He was rather skilled with the cane; it was much like one of the sticks he and his friends would use when they had their mock sword fights at school. He could easily take a bird down with a single stroke, and cause them to burst into dust right in front of his face instead of a couple feet down; which Ace thought made him look extremely cool as he did this.

Alex had woken up, startled by the cries of the birds, and the maniacal laughter of the Hatter as he scissored another bird. She gaped as she saw Ace whacking a bunch of the birds down, an easygoing smile on his face as he did so. She wrenched herself out of her mother's arms, and then looked at the Hatter, before she shouted, "Hatter! What is going on?"

"Good morning Alex!" Hatter called as his lace caught another bird and pushed it towards the ground. The bird squawked as it disappeared into nothing but dust like the other ones that had died before it. Alex could only gape at the Hatter, unsure of what to think of him. She knew that these birds were merely gold powder that had a spell on them by the Diamonds, with red paint on their chest to mark that they were under the Queen's power, but they were not actually alive. Would this make them murderers? Or just simply people who broke the spell on the birds.

She then decided to play along with the Hatter, pretending that watching the birds die was something that she was already used to; even though it bothered her greatly. Waving her hand at him, a smile on her face, she then said, "Oh, good morning Hatter! Would you like me to make you some tea? Oh wait; we can't light a fire on Butterfly's back."

"It's tea time all ready?" Hatter said, looking down at his scissors and seeing his own reflection smiling back at him. His golden-brown eyes glinted in the scissors, making him look extremely insane, and his grin grew. It seemed, to Alex, that his scissors had a clock built into them for the Hatter (though they were only steel and were nothing really special.) It was like the time he looked at his handkerchief to see what time it was after he had given Alex his pocket watch. It was sad, really, that Hatter hadn't gone at least a little bit saner since Alex had come, but she really didn't know what she could possibly do to help.

At least he didn't only drink tea anymore.

Ace struck down the last bird with the cane he had borrowed from Alex, and then smiled at the Hatter. The former Heart also gave Ace a smile, before he frowned; looking at the golden dust that was now swirling in the air. Alex gasped as it turned into a large bird; bigger than anything she had ever seen before. She wondered how magic could possibly do something like this; make an object that wasn't alive into something that could move, breathe, and kill.

But, the Diamonds had access to the best books of magic in Wonderland, being related to the Queen, and they were expected to study it, and become a mage for the Queen's army. Any Diamond that didn't was killed immediately, and their body was hung out in the Queen's courtyard as an example for the rest of the Diamonds, and the other two Card families, to obey the Queen or death. Alex then knew that this was expected of them; to be able to create large animals out of powdered minerals. The more valuable the mineral, the better the monster; which is why the Queen demanded that the Clubs and Spades mine for gold.

So she could create these horrible monsters to fight for her. Alex wondered if the Diamonds that were controlling these monsters would die if they failed to catch her and her family. She already knew that they would, but she didn't want to think that way, instead, hoping that they would stay alive. But, the Queen of Wonderland (or as she called it Heart's Country) was not a merciful one. They all would die before the sun rose if they failed to capture Alex.

She didn't want to think that she would cause the deaths of even more people, feeling like she was sinking deeper and deeper in the blood of the people that she had led to their deaths. Alex looked at the large monster, eyes widening as it swatted at the Hatter with its large wings. Fortunately, the Hatter was faster than its wings, though the monster was too heavy for his lace, and caused the whole group of people getting held up by it to jerk downwards as it then slashed through it.

Alex looked at Ace, who was then falling towards the ground, to his death. Without being attached to the Hatter, the lace wrapped around him was merely lace, and it would not hold him up. Ace didn't scream, though is mother did as he fell; instead, the boy looked up at his sister, and then smiled. He shouted up at her, "Go Alex Spade! The hope of Wonderland!"

"ACE!" Alex screamed, and then she looked at the Hatter, before he grabbed her hand, and jumped down to get him with her. The wind flapped through her hair as they fell together, sped up by the magic lace the Hatter used. It made her hair spiral backwards, the pigtails getting tangled with each other, and the momentum of them falling brought tears to Alex's eyes. But she didn't care; she had to save her little brother.

She looked at Ace, who was still farther down from her, flailing his arms in the arm in an attempt to slow himself down so Alex and the Hatter could reach him. But Alex knew that if she didn't go any faster, then they wouldn't be able to save Ace. She tried to make herself go faster, though she had no clue of what to do, and the Hatter frowned at her. "Alex, I can't make us go any faster, I'm sorry."

Though his words were marred by the speed they were flying at, Alex understood them, and she then knew; she didn't really have a chance to save her little brother. She would still try, because if she didn't try, then there was no way that she would be able to save him at all. They got closer to Ace, who was looking at them, with wide eyes; it was like he hadn't expected them to come and save him. Rightly, he had a reason to assume that; Alex and the Hatter should currently be helping Dee and Dum kill the large Diamond-magicked monster instead of saving him.

Alex reached for his hand, and he reached back, they were close to grabbing onto each other; and Alex's hand brushed against Ace. Her fingers slipped through his before he then hit the nearest tree.

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**Thanks to K9olaquia and LilyMaeve for reviewing! Thanks to K9olaquia and LilyMaeve for subscribing to this story! Thanks for reading, and please review!**


	10. Chapter 10

The crack of Ace's many broken bones, including his neck, made Alex shudder, before she then fought the lace that wrapped around her to get to her brother.

She was an Alice; she could save Ace if he was still alive, she could make him better. Alex shook her head, she shouldn't be thinking that Ace was dead; he was alive, he had to be. Alex didn't know what else she would do if Ace had died. She may have been eight years older than him, but Ace was extremely important to Alex; he was her only sibling. She couldn't imagine his eyes blank, his body unmoving and deathly pale. He always had so much energy; it didn't seem possible that he would die so soon. Alex always thought that she would die before Ace, and now, she was having doubts with her reasoning.

Hatter then cut her lose when they were closer to the ground, and Alex nearly tripped over a root as she scrambled to her brother. He wasn't moving; his legs and arms sprawled out in awkward positions that made it clear they were broken. His head was to the side, and blood dripped out of the corner of his mouth; coming out from the internal bleeding his body was suffering after his ribs punctured one of his lungs. Alex carefully wrapped her arms around her little brother, and tried to get him to wake up. His brown eyes were open; though they were glazed over, and it didn't seem as if he was breathing.

His head merely lolled to the side, and Alex then knew that her brother had died immediately after he had hit the tree. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she clutched him to her body; looking into his dark brown eyes that were now void of any consciousness. Why did he have to die? He was so young; he didn't deserve to die, he had so much life ahead of him. Ace was supposed to be the first person to ever venture back into Joker Forest to get the people of Town of Cards wood; he was supposed to be their Hero.

Now, he was lying dead in his sister's arms, all of his dreams just something that were never to be; all of his hopes flying off into the air, never to be hoped again. His thoughts were something that would never be voiced again; his voice would never be heard. She could never hear his laughter again; or see his smile, or have him wake her up when she slept in. Her life seemed to spiral down into a dark crevasse, never to be seen again. Her little brother was dead.

Guilt flooded Alex's heart; drowning any other emotion except sadness, and it refused to be drained out. Alex had caused Ace to die; she was the one that the bird was after not him, not her family, but her. Ace was added on the list of people that Alex had made die to save Wonderland. It was all her fault that she no longer had a little brother; all her fault that Ace's future was destroyed. Her mother and father no longer had a son because of Alex.

She felt like a murderer; she felt like she was in a constant rain of blood that drenched her clothes and stained her body. She was covered in it, so thick that there was no way water could make her come clean; no way she would ever not be branded as somebody who took many lives. Suddenly, she felt heavier, like she was stuck to the ground; holding Ace's body. Would this be a punishment to her? For eternally looking at her little brother's dead body would be extreme hell for Alex, and she knew it.

Hatter put his hand on her shoulder, lightly, making Alex finally tear her glance from her brother's body. The golden-brown eyes met the dark brown, and for a second, they just stared at each other, words flying from their eyes back and forth; words that they could never possibly say. After a couple of moments of this, Hatter then said, "I'm sorry, Alex, this is my fault. I should have not let him fight."

Alex looked at him for another moment and then shook her head, causing her hair to whip back and forth, hitting her face as she did this. She wondered why the Hatter blamed himself; Ace, being Ace would have fought even if the Hatter had forbidden him to. Alex then brought a hand to touch the one that was resting on her shoulder. He shuddered at the contact, but Alex ignored it before she said, "It's not your fault, Hatter, its mine. If I wasn't an Alice… if… if I hadn't gotten into this… why?" Alex's argument died, as she then set Ace down on the ground, not looking at the body before she wrapped her arms around the Hatter and sobbed into his shirt.

Hatter was even more shocked at this contact then the little hand touch, but he slowly brought his arms around her, holding Alex closer to him. Hatter didn't know why, but it seemed that this was what he was supposed to do to comfort her. Memories flashed through his brain; and he was suddenly held by Helen Diamond. Tears were in his eyes as he cried. Something had happened; he didn't know what, but something had happened that made him cry.

He shook himself out of his memories and back to Alex; she reminded him of himself as she did this. But, Hatter didn't know why he was crying, and Alex did. He let himself look at Ace again; the boy's eyes were still open, and the Hatter thought that they should close them soon. They had to go; it seemed as though Dee and Dum were having troubles against this bird. The very same bird that had made Ace die, the bird that had made Alex cry. Anger seared through the Hatter as he gripped Alex tighter, before he then brought her head back.

Keeping a straight face, Hatter then quietly said, "Alex, we should close his eyes. I know this is going to be hard for you, but we must leave him here. I know you blame yourself for this, and I wish that it hadn't happened as well, but we have a task at hand. You can take as much time as you want…"

"I know, Hatter," Alex finally spoke after her sobbing fit, and she then went back down on her knees to look at Ace for one last time. With her two pointer fingers, she carefully closed his eyes, and then she gave him a kiss on the forehead. She took the cane from his fingers, and then muttered, "I'll be needing this, I'm sorry for everything. Goodbye, Ace, may you be happy in the Land of Souls."

Alex was then comforted by the thought that Ace's soul would never be used for a Card Soldier, and that he would be happy in the painless afterlife that all of the people in Wonderland believed in. He would keep his soul for himself; he would never be forced to lead others to their deaths. Ace would be himself in the afterlife; he would not be scarred by memories of being a Card Soldier. He would be happy.

Alex wiped the tears from her eyes, and she thought that Ace would probably get angry if she kept on crying; telling her to waste her tears on something else. She then knew that she would no longer cry about Ace; but instead, she would cherish his memory, and hold him dear to her heart forever more. She looked at her brother once more, before she took the Hatter's extended hand and then was raised into the sky by the Hatter's lace.

She gripped the cane tighter in her hands as she saw the bird that had multiple arrows in its chest and wings. This monster had taken Ace's life, and Alex would get her vengeance on it. Nothing messed with her and got away from her without vengeance. Alex then realized that the Queen was really the one behind Ace's death, and she bit her lip angrily. She would get the Queen overthrown; Alex would help save Wonderland; for Ace and for everybody.

She heard her mother sniffle as she noticed that Alex and the Hatter did not come back with Ace; realizing that her son was dead. Alex's father had tears slowly dripping down his face, before he then looked at his wife, a sad smile on his face. "Linda, be strong for Alex."

"What?" Linda Spade looked at her husband, a frown breaking through her saddened expression. "What do you mean, Charles?"

Charles shook his head lightly, and then removed a hand from his shoulder. Blood was pouring from his wound, and it began to drip on the ground. Linda narrowed her eyes and then realized that his wound was poisoned as well, for there was a yellow pus coming from the wound. Charles Spade smiled at his wife, and then, with his clean hand, gently stroked her face. He then whispered, "I have been hiding this from you, I received it after we escaped from the Dungeons. This wound is too much, I shall die soon. I am sorry, Linda. Goodbye."

Charles Spade closed his eyes as he toppled off of Butterfly, and down to his certain death.

"Charles!" Linda cried, and she ran over to the edge of the butterfly, looking at her husband's receding body. She always knew that Charles favoured Ace more than Alex; she knew since he was the one to put Alex as the Queen's seamstress five years ago. But, she didn't know that Charles was so attached to his only son and no longer cared about his wife or his daughter. She balled her hands up in fist, before she then sank to her knees. Linda Spade had no clue of what to do.

She was now a widow with Wonderland's hope as her only remaining immediate family. She then remembered what her husband had said before he had committed his very sudden and unexpected suicide. She knew that Charles had been wounded, but he could have been saved, Linda knew it. Part of his death must have been the reason to cope with Ace's death. _Be strong for Alex. _That was really all she could do; being there for Alex, helping her get through this. Saving her from anything that would try to kill her. If it meant that Linda would die, she would protect her daughter.

Alex was too caught up in the fact that there was a giant bird trying to eat her to notice that her father had literally jumped ship. She ducked as it tried to spear her with its beak, and she then brought her cane up and hit it in the eye. The bird squawked at Alex, the sound waves of its voice (which was magically enhanced) making her fly backwards into Dum. The blond boy gave Alex a quick smile, knowing what had happened to her little brother, before he then helped her back to her feet.

Alex quickly thanked Dum before she then looked back at the bird; its blue eyes searing with hatred as it looked at the Alice of Spades. All that the bird knew was that its masters wanted him to bring the girl with the long black hair that was in pigtails back to the Queen. It also knew that it had to bring the girl back alive. It didn't know that it was merely golden dust magicked so it could move and be alive, nor did it care. All the bird thought about was getting the Alice, and killing anybody in its way.

The bird gave an annoyed squawk as the Mad Hatter got in his way, blocking Alex from its talons, instead, trapping its leg in the lace that swirled around the Hatter. The bird flapped its wings, trying to escape from the hold that the Mad Hatter had on its foot, pulling the lace upwards as it flew. But the Hatter wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. Instead, he extended his lace, and the bird realized that it wasn't taking its prey with him, and it squawked yet again.

Hatter snipped his scissors on the lace, cutting himself from the bird as it then dived down on the rest of them. Dee shot his last arrow in the bird's eye, and instead of blood coming from the wound, it was merely golden dust. The bird fell back, appalled at the sensation of his life being slowly whisked away from him as the wind caught the golden dust and carried it off. The bird's good eye narrowed as it looked at Dee, wanting to kill him more than ever for breaking his body.

But, injuring the bird was a good thing for the Alices and the Twiddles; the more golden dust that came from the bird's body meant that there wasn't as much magic in it; and that it wasn't as strong. The bird bent down to peck Alex again, and this time, she dodged it before she rammed her staff into the arrow that Dee had left sticking out of the bird's eye. More dust flew from the wound, and the bird brought its head away from Alex, shrieking as he shook his head, causing the dust to rain down on its enemies.

The bird knew that it was going to die; it could feel its power draining out with every passing second. The bird wanted to get the Alice though; he needed to get the Alice. The will of the Diamonds controlling the bird pumped through it; for the Diamonds knew that if they failed, they would get killed by the Queen. So the bird felt their stress about this; he felt their need to get Alex, and to stay alive. It felt this, and it knew that it was going to fail.

It looked down at Alex, who had her cane raised, ready to hit the bird again if she needed to. Her face was grim, and the bird knew that it would not get any mercy from her, and that it wouldn't be able to take her back to the Queen. It was intrigued by her, this woman who was brave enough to fight the Queen, who had been in power for so long, to make her country a better place.

The bird's wings suddenly felt heavy as it flapped them, and all it wanted to do was lay down on the ground and sleep. But its masters kept on pumping their need through him, they kept on making him fly, and they then made him lunge after Alex. The girl had expected this much, and she jumped out of the way. She then brought her cane down on its neck as hard as she could, not uttering a wince as she heard it crack.

The bird fell to the ground, unable to flap its wings, and the Diamonds controlling it looked at each other. They then looked out at Joker Forest. Conjuring up couple more birds, the man and the woman who had created the bird that had killed Ace flew off into Joker Forest; accepting exile instead of their deaths.

After she had killed the bird, Alex was amazed to see it turn completely into dust and slowly get blown away by the wind. The energy in her body suddenly failed her, and she then felt herself slump to the ground, though Hatter's lace kept her up. She didn't walk back to Butterfly; instead, she let the lace take her back and settled herself at her mother's feet.

That was went Alex noticed that her father was gone. She looked around the blue Butterfly again, but she saw nobody else from her family except her mother. She looked at her mother then, and saw that she was crying, and holding the wedding band her father had given her in her fist instead of on her finger. Alex sat up slowly, and the world spun for a moment, before she shook her head, trying to get her grip on life. Looking at her mother, she then asked, "Where's Da?"

"He joined Ace," Linda said simply as she then walked over to the edge of Butterfly, and dropped her ring down into Joker Forest. The steel band twirled in the air, catching the sunlight as it did so, and Linda tried to ignore her memories with her husband as it then disappeared in the trees; never to be seen again.

"Why would he do that?" Alex looked at her mother, not questioning the fact that she had dropped her ring. It was custom for widows in Town of Cards to destroy their wedding bands after their partners had died; burning away any last reminders of him to accept the fact that they were dead and never coming back. Most of the bands that Spades and Clubs had were made of steel, and thus expendable, but Alex had heard that a couple of Diamonds merely sold theirs because they were valuable, made of either gold or silver.

"He was wounded, but he could have been saved. I don't know why he did it, Alex, I don't know anything," Linda replied as she then sat down next to Alex. She wrapped her arms around Alex, and then held her daughter to her chest as she then cried silently, trying not to sob loudly, for Alex was on the verge of passing out because she was so tired.

Sleep did come for Alex, and it brought another dream.

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**Thanks to K9olaquia for reviewing! Sorry for the long wait... I had forgotten that I hadn't updated in forever. **


	11. Chapter 11

She was still wrapped in the arms of the Hatter, drowning under the red liquid, before the body then changed to one familiar. It's head floated by her, and Alex gasped, causing all of the air in her lungs to turn into bubbles around her. Ace. It was Ace who was drowning her. She kicked him, fighting to get free as she internally screamed, looking up in the red water to see it break again.

The Hatter had come to save her again. She wanted to wave her hands away, tell him to leave her alone because he would get killed like he did in her previous dream, but Alex couldn't move. She felt reality slipping through her grasp, and then she felt herself get ripped upwards by another pair of strong arms.

"Alex, breathe, Alex!" a voice said, and Alex felt herself coughing up the red liquid she had inhaled, which now tasted an awful lot like blood. She slowly cracked her eyes open to see that the Hatter had successfully rescued her this time; his auburn hair flattened to his face with the red liquid, his golden-brown eyes looking at her concerned. She then realized that he wasn't wearing his hat, but she saw that he still had lace wrapped around his shoulders.

"Ha-hatter," Alex stuttered, as she then got help sitting up from the Hatter. He looked at her for a moment, and then pointed at the window in a door, where a girl with long blond hair was sitting; looking at the two with a smile on her face. She wasn't like Alex had expected her to be, she was older, about the age of Alex. She then felt the word slip through her lips. "Alice…"

She tried to open up the door, but it was locked. She looked around for her cane to break the lock with, but she couldn't find it. Alex pulled with all her might only to find that the door was still locked, and that she couldn't open it. She then resorted to banging her hands on the door until they bleed.

Alex was then shaken awake by her mother, and she saw that it was evening. The moon was overhead; though it wasn't shining very brightly, and Alex had to make sure it just wasn't the Cheshire Cat messing with her brain. Her mother looked at Alex, and then said, "I'm sorry for waking you up, Alex, but it is time to eat. You've slept all day, you must be hungry."

Alex nodded in thanks to her mother, though she didn't try to speak yet. She didn't trust herself to say anything without bursting out into sobs about her father and her brother's deaths that had only happened hours ago.

She thought about her dream instead as she was given a cup of tea from the Hatter. They had to mean something; they just did. There was no way that she was just dreaming these dreams for no reason. They were all connected, each of them, like it was a story book that she had stopped reading at one point and then picked up again later. She wondered if this was something that her imagination was just doing something to mess with her after Ace's death. That thought struck her hard, but she ignored it as she pondered on the dream. Was Alice sending her these dreams?

If she was, Alex wished that they wouldn't be so horrific, and that she wouldn't have to get them every single night. They were scarring to her, and she wished that she wouldn't have to dream about her little brother holding her down to drown her. The Hatter had also been in her dreams, and in the second one, he had died, but in this one he had saved her. He was also caring for her in the third dream; the one she had just dreamt. It was like he was protecting her from anything, and that he was relieved that she was still alive. It was more than the fact that she was an Alice; but the fact that he wanted her to be alive because she was herself.

She sipped her tea, watching as her mother, with empty eyes did the same; drinking more and more of the tea, her eyes trailing the Cheshire Cat that was flying around Dee and Dum, poking them occasionally and then disappearing as they tried to hit him out of the sky. Alex knew that she was reminded of Ace when she watched Dee and Dum, because he was the same age as they were before he had died.

Alex tried not to compare the twins with her brother; she knew that Ace was dead, and that he was never going to come back to her. She wouldn't want to find him in another person, because he was only one person, and could never be another one. She didn't want to turn another person to become Ace; she never wanted him to be replaced. The best thing that she could do was accept his death.

Still, she tried not to think of him; tried not to imagine how his face would light up as he would be here, and how he would love to be on this adventure. She tried not to miss his smile, and his comments, and how he cared so much for her. But, she failed, and then she, first dropping her teacup, wrapped her arms around her knees, resting her head on her knees, letting tears slowly fall from her eyes. She knew that Ace wouldn't want her to cry, but it was so hard not to.

Hatter came over to her, and picked up the cup of tea that she had spilt on the ground. He gave her a little smile as he then poured her another cup of tea. He handed it to her, and she took it, taking another sip of it before she then merely stared into the cup of tea. The Hatter looked at Alex again, before he then said, "Alex, could you tell me why a raven is like a writing desk?"

Alex looked at him for a moment, before she took another sip of her tea. She then set down the cup that was still rather full, before she replied, "Because it wants to be."

"So you've come up with an answer now? That's a very good answer," Hatter nodded, before he sat down next to her. "Alex, drink your tea, it will make you feel better."

"I'm not sure if I want to feel better, Hatter," Alex replied, though she did was she was told and then began to drink her tea again. As the Hatter said, it warmed her inside, and she did feel slightly better; thought the glum, and sadness of Ace and her father's deaths still held onto her like a leech sucking blood from its prey. The fact that Hatter had asked her the riddle also made her smile, reminding her that life sometimes did not have a direct answer, and when you didn't know where to go, if your path had ended, then you could just make another one up.

Alex felt herself give him a small smile, which he returned with a large one. She wanted to be happy, though she knew that she never really could be truly happy for a long while. She knew that Ace would hate her for crying, and that he would want her to live her life normally (if that was even possible for Alex anymore) so she would try. Try was all she could do right now.

Hatter seemed to understand that she didn't want to talk about her brother's death, and then smiled as he refilled her teacup. The thing he though would be best was to act like he was the Mad Hatter, instead of the person he was becoming around Alex. Being with her made him think more rationally, made him think that his sanity was coming back. It also made him remember what his life was like before Alice came; which was something he did not want to know. But, he didn't want to not be around Alex, he liked her too much to do so.

Anyways, she was his fellow Alice, so it would be logical that he would stay with her, to make sure that she wouldn't get hurt. Hatter internally shook himself; he was acting too protective of her, she could defend herself if she needed.

"So, Alex, what to do next?" Hatter asked, as he then looked at the handkerchief again. Alex sighed, taking out the pocket watch and swinging it back and forth across her face, watching as the second hand slowly ticked by another minute. Alex honestly didn't know what to do. She had planned out that she would hide her family somewhere that Cat had dubbed safe in Joker Forest, and then go out to find Alice, but it didn't seem that simple anymore.

She thought about the bird; the one she had hated so much for taking Ace's life, but now, it seemed as though it wasn't the bird, but the people controlling it that killed him. She pitied the bird, for not actually being a living being but tasting life for a few minutes, only to be killed. She knew that she couldn't have let it live, otherwise she would be brought back to the Queen, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for it. She wished that her world wasn't as cruel as it was, but she had to bear it.

She then realized that this was why they needed to find Alice, that this was the reason why she would save Alice from wherever she was kept. She thought about the wall of clouds, and then realized that maybe Alice was in there. She would get Alice out, and she would save Wonderland from this kind of cruelty. If the Queen died, then Wonderland would finally be free.

Alex then felt herself singing the song quietly under her breath. After the first line, Hatter joined her.

"_One day, she will be put in her place,  
Alice will come, come for her tea,  
The Queen's body won't have a face,  
Wonderland shall be free."_

Alex stopped singing here, but the Hatter continued onto a part that she had never heard before.

"_Brought by the Alice of Spades,  
Alice will be set finally free,  
Ending the horrible dark age,  
The Hope of Wonderland will be seen."_

Hatter finished, and then Alex frowned at him, though he smiled. She wasn't sure if the song had a second verse, for she only remembered the first one, and she thought that the last couple verses had been lost since the people of Town of Cards were not allowed to sing it. Even if there were more verses, Alex was sure that this wouldn't be one of them. "Hatter, did you make that up?"

Hatter smiled at her for a moment, before he then shook his head at her. "No, Alex, I didn't. It is the second verse that nobody knows because the Queen had made everybody stop singing it. The people your mother's age had forgotten, but some of the older folks know it."

Alex then understood what the Club woman had been talking about when she said that she was sad that she couldn't see it. The elderly lady knew that she would be the one to help save Wonderland, and Alex could only suspect that she knew the Queen wouldn't kill her without making sure that she was an Alice first. Alex then wondered why the Queen didn't try to make her do something in front of the court. She then guessed it was because the Queen was hoping that she would die before she could realize that she was an Alice. But, as Dee had said before, the forest was on their side.

"I'm late! Oh dear! I'm late!" The White Rabbit broke her train of thoughts as it ran around in circles; its pink eyes bulging in panic. It kept on checking a pocket watch that was made of brass and extremely tarnished for the time, even though the watch was broken. "Alex, Alice, Alex, Alice, I'm late, could you please tell me when I have to see the Queen? Oh, I know I'm late for her crocay. I just… late, late! If I'm late, she'll behead me!"

"Rabbit," she said, and he stopped running in circles. Alex smiled at him, a kind smile as she then said, "You'll never have to see the Queen again."

"You mean, I'm not late?" The Rabbit blinked up at Alex, confused for a moment, as Linda Spade then looked at her daughter. Alex seemed like she was in the right place with these strange folk, it seemed as though she understood them. Alex had always been empathetic to others in the Town of Cards, taking in strangers when she was a little kid because she knew that they didn't have enough to eat. Alex would do it with a smile on her face; just like the smile that was on her face now.

"Yes, Rabbit, you aren't late," Alex told him, and he then sat down on the ground, looking at the brass clock, and then he smiled. He shoved it in his breast pocket, and then smiled at Alex. He then began to rock back and forth, looking extremely pleased with himself.

"Alex, do you want me to check the map?" Hatter asked, as he reached into his hat, making Alex look away from the pleased rabbit to the Mad Hatter. She nodded as he then unfolded it, watching as the lines reappeared on the Alice Map. They curved around Wonderland, passing through Joker Forest and then to the large lake that was in the middle of the forest. Strangely enough, inside of the lake was marked with a Key emblem.

"A lake? Which lake is that?" Alex questioned, and just as she did so, words appeared over the lake in curly handwriting. She narrowed her eyes so she could read it, and then frowned. "Jack Lake? What could possibly be there?"

Hatter was muttering something under his breath, before he then cursed himself. He looked at Alex for a moment, before he sighed and then said "That was where Alice first came up from Wonderland. After crying herself out of the door, ending up in a bottle. She met the Dodo there, and then lost the door key. We might need that door key, Alex, for whatever reason. That is why this map is leading us there."

"What could I possibly use that key for?" Alex said to herself, and then she remembered the door she had tried so hard to open in her dream. The key might unlock that door, and then she could get in to Alice. She felt herself plotting what she would do after she got Alice, and then she shook her head, reminding herself that there was a high chance that she might never actually see Alice. She could drown in that red liquid, which Alex was sure was blood now, with all of the corpses of people she had known that had died.

Dee and Dum walked over to Alex, and then looked down at the map. Dum looked at Hatter for a moment, and then said, "I don't understand why you two always look at a blank piece of paper and then decide where we're going."

"You seem to consider it like a map," Dee continued, and then Alex frowned. Was it possible that only she and the Hatter could see that the paper was a map? She then reckoned that it had only started working after she had touched it and Hatter had once called it the Alice Map when he was talking to Cat awhile back. Perhaps only Alices could see it.

"That's because it is a map," Hatter said huffily, rolling it back up and then shoving it in his hat. He looked at Butterfly, who had fallen asleep before Alex had woken up, tired of the days flying. He had to dodge all of the birds that were trying to take Alex off of his back, and he had flown at a break neck speed to cover as much distance as possible from the Queen's palace. "Okay, everybody sleep now, tomorrow, we make for Jack Lake."

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**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	12. Chapter 12

"Hatter, I can watch, I slept all day," Alex said, and she was right about not being tired. She felt wide awake, though the death of Ace wore heavily on her heart, and it threatened to drag her into the urge to sleep so she could lose herself in a dreamless sleep. But Alex knew that the chances of her having a dreamless sleep wouldn't be likely, because of all of the dreams that she kept on having. It would only make her mourn the death of Ace even more.

She'd rather face the fact that Ace was dead, then have a dream where he was alive, and then have to face the reality that he was dead again. She thought about her father's death too; and then realized that grief was something that could tear people apart. It was the strongest emotion that Alex knew, even taking over love since it usually derived from it. If love was stronger than grief, her father would still be here with her mother, but grief had taken hold of him and plunged him to his death.

Hatter nodded at her, and then repeated what he had said before. "If anybody comes, and I mean anybody, wake me up," he said, before he then lay on the ground close to the fire that he had going. Before Alex had even moved, the Hatter then said, in a very sleepy tone, "There is tea in the kettle, Alex, please help yourself to it. It's Dee's turn to watch, wake him up at around one in the morning; then you could get some more sleep. Have fun at your tea time."

"Thanks, Hatter," Alex mumbled as her fingers fumbled over the kettle. She sighed, and she poured herself another cup, and she was shocked to see that it came the way she liked it. If the Hatter had any magic at all (and she was sure he did have some with the lace) it had to be in making tea the way people absolutely loved it. She sipped her tea as she watched the stars, wondering what they could possibly mean, and wondering what was going to be next in her future.

She spent a long time just thinking as she looked at the sky, wondering on what to do next, and why she was here. She often thought about the simple things in her life, thinking about the people in the Town of Cards who no longer had a seamstress to go to. She wondered how the baker was, for her friend worked there. She wondered how many people the Queen had killed because of petty things, and then she wondered how many she had killed because of Alex.

Even though she was against taking human lives, Alex didn't mind the fact that the people who had killed her little brother, and had made her father commit suicide were probably already dead. And they were. Even though the two Diamonds had tried to escape, the Queen had put tracking devices on all of her court, and could easily find them with the help of another mage. They were killed on the spot for treason, and for failing to do their proper job.

Alex had heard about the tracking devices that were magically implanted into the people who worked for the Queen's skin. She knew that since she hadn't actually been close enough to the Queen long enough that she didn't have it. Otherwise, there would be Card Soldiers all over here right now. Alex was amazed that magic could do so much; even if it was so much evil, and she wished that the people who were magic users could use it to make the mines in Town of Cards safer, and help cure illnesses as well.

But, the Queen did not care of the population of her Heart's Country that was slowly getting smaller and smaller because she was murdering at least a hundred people a day. She only cared for herself, whether she looked nice, whether she was happy, and as long as Wonderland was in her hold, if nobody said the word Alice, she would be extremely satisfied.

Alex smiled to herself. The Queen was going to get a surprise when Alice came back and overthrew her. Alex wanted to live to see that day; she wanted to be in the room when the Queen realized that Alice was back in Wonderland, ready to save it from an evil over lord. Alex wanted to watch as the Queen had her crown knocked off her head for good and then placed on another's head while the Queen watched.

Alex wanted to save Wonderland more than anything since Ace had died. She would stop at nothing to do so, even if that meant going to a lake to search for a key that had been lost since Alice had first come to Wonderland. She would find it, because Alex had the suspicion that it opened the door to the wall of clouds she had seen multiple times in her dream. She would find the key that opened up the door and released Wonderland's future.

The night went on with Alex thinking thoughts like this, and drinking the rest of the pot of tea. When her pocket watch gave her a small little ding telling her that it was one o'clock, Alex then gently shook Dee awake, wanting to get some sleep of her own, even if that meant that she would only get five hours of it. Dee was reluctant to get up at first, but after Alex had threatened to dump the pot of tea on his head he obliged, yawning as he sat up.

He added another log onto the fire that Alex had kept going all night, and then watched as she fell asleep within a couple of seconds. He smiled to himself and then looked at the kettle. Perhaps, he reckoned, it could use a little vacation. He then stood up, took the kettle off of the fire, and threw it as far as he could into the woods, hoping that Hatter wouldn't notice that he was the one to do it.

Well, he had a twin brother he could blame.

Alex woke the next morning to the shouts of Hatter, who was very whiny about his lost tea kettle. Alex honestly couldn't care, and then checked her pocket watch to see what time it was. Six in the morning, the watch told her, and Alex cursed herself for being an Alice before she got up. She looked at Hatter, who looked back at her before he then began to rant about how Dee had thrown his kettle into the woods and now it had a dent in the side.

Alex sighed, and then checked the backpacks for something decent to eat. She didn't feel like eating a hot breakfast and then started on an apple before she remembered the last day she had been in her home. Ace had given her an apple to eat for breakfast. Ace had died yesterday. The piece of apple she had been chewing on suddenly felt like it was dirt, though she swallowed it and then could not take another bite.

She looked down at the apple, which she had taken only a couple bites out of, and then sighed to herself again. She tried not to cry, but she knew that she was going to if she kept on thinking about Ace. She then thought of something else, but she couldn't help but seeing Ace's face; happy, smiling and cold, dead in her mind. A tear rolled down her cheek, and she then dropped her apple, before she went back to her bag. She pretended to rummage through it for her hair elastics so she could hide her tears; even though she knew that the elastics were on her wrists.

She didn't want the others to know that she was crying, and she wiped the tears away from her face. Butterfly looked down at the girl, and she looked back at him. For a second, their eyes met, his cold blue ones and Alex's dark brown ones, before he looked away, pretending that he saw nothing. He took another draft of his pipe, blowing out more smoke for the Cheshire Cat to play in.

Alex tied up her hair, no longer feeling like eating something. She watched as Cat noticed the apple on the ground, picked it up and then ate it in one bite. Alex was glad that the reminder of Ace had disappeared, for now. She watched as the Cheshire Cat then began to bother the Twiddles, who were both rather tired and had cups of tea (that the Hatter had forced them to have) in their hands. The Cat poked them multiple times before Dum then threw his teacup at him. As usual, Cat disappeared and the teacup, and the tea, ended up on the ground next to Dee, who then threw his cup at Cat when he reappeared again.

Hatter, as usual was not amused with Dee and Dum for abusing his cups, though he didn't bother to hit them with the cane Alex had returned to him. He knew that it would only remind Alex of Ace, and he then settled with merely a death glare. Both boys shuddered backwards as Cat appeared on Hatter's shoulders, grinning at the two boys as if to say 'you-can't-get-me-when-I'm-near-him-or-you'll-die.'

Alex thought that Cat's thinking was rather correct, though she didn't want to voice the fact that she thought the Hatter was scary when he wanted to be. She had never had him angry with her, and she didn't plan in it anytime soon. Hopefully he would never get angry with her. Alex usually tried to keep out of fights; she didn't often have them unless they were with Ace about petty things. But, it seemed that nothing in her life could be described as petty now.

Thinking about Ace brought a wave of sadness over Alex, though she tried to ignore it as she watched Butterfly blow out some more smoke. She gave a small smile when he blew out a picture of Dee getting hit in the head with a teacup by Dum… or it could have been the other way around, Alex wasn't sure.

She watched as the Cheshire Cat fixed his armband again, and she remembered that she was still wearing her own. It seemed like an eternity ago that she had made these, but in reality, it was only a couple days ago. She looked at the white fabric, and then decided to count the stitches she had made around the spade that was in the middle of it to keep herself from thinking of Ace.

Twenty-seven stitches later, Alex then realized that everybody was getting loaded onto Butterfly for another day of travel. She walked over to her mother, and then gripped her hand as they then walked back onto the blue butterfly's back, waiting for their journey to end. Linda Spade knew that Alex was still grieving, and she knew that it was more for Ace then for her husband; but she didn't scold Alex for doing so because she was doing the exact opposite.

Why did Charles have to kill himself? His injury was healable, so why didn't let them heal him? Didn't he care about her enough to stay with her? She couldn't believe that in one day, she had lost both her husband and her son. She missed him dearly, and she couldn't help but have a little voice in her head tell her it was all Alex's fault. If Alex hadn't been an Alice, Ace and Charles would still be alive. But, Linda fought that voice in her head; Alex was her daughter, and she should be proud to have her be the saviour of Wonderland.

Alex hadn't saved Wonderland yet, she reminded herself, as she then felt the wind blow through her hair. Alex hadn't saved Wonderland yet she repeated in her head; the only thing she had managed to do is free a crazy rabbit and her family from Dungeons only to have half of her family die. Linda didn't know if Alex could be a hero, she was always such a quiet girl, always against violence. But now, Alex had slain a great bird with only a cane.

Linda knew that her friends had helped Alex, but it still seemed like a big step from the Alex that she knew from the Alex that was here now. Something had changed in her; it was like she had a goal that she needed to get to, a vision of a brighter future. Linda thought that maybe Alex was determined to make sure that Ace's death had not been in vain, and that it would be honoured; unlike Charles, who had died for no reason at all except for the grief that had taken over his heart.

Linda shook her head as she did this, wondering why she even let herself get rescued from the Dungeons if she was just going to get thrown into a world that she never wanted to be in. She was in a world without her husband, or her son; a world where her daughter killed monsters and hung around with a bunch of people who had no sanity what so ever. Linda sighed as she thought about her life before Alex had been accused of being Alice. It was so simple. She longed for that life, but Linda knew that she would never get it. It was a bird that had escaped from its change into the open sky, never to return.

The sky was cloudless, which meant that Butterfly had to be wary of the flying spies of the Queen, though they all reasoned that she wouldn't send them again because they had failed to retrieve Alex the first time. It helped that Butterfly happened to be a sky blue, and that he blended into the sky from the ground, where his passengers could not be seen. He was rather irate about the fact that he still had to carry them, though the Hatter had taken to flying in his lace, though he did not offer to carry anybody else in fear of another death.

Alex felt sorry for him; she knew that he shouldn't be burdening himself with her brother's death, but she knew he was. It was unavoidable, though unnecessary; Alex was sure that Dee and Dum, who were closest to Ace at the time the bird struck, also blamed themselves for his death. She knew that they thought that they should have grabbed him as the bird came down on the lace. She shook her head; it was all her fault that she was the Alice, and that the Queen was out for her blood, nobody else needed to burden themselves with the pain of guilt that Alex felt right now.

She didn't speak the whole journey, instead, she simply watched as the trees passed beneath her, thinking of Ace's body on the ground now. She shuddered as she thought of the fact that an animal might have dragged him off to eat him. She then tried to reassure herself that it was only Ace's shell; and it wasn't actually the smiling body that Alex loved so much. She thought of her father, who had completely abandoned the remainder of their family because of the death of his son.

She wondered why he chose to join Ace instead of staying with her mother; but it seemed as though her father no longer cared for Alex, and was tired of being the father of the Alice of Spades. This hurt Alex more than the fact that her father died; the reason he died. Charles Spade couldn't bear the loss of his son, and he no longer cared for his daughter. He had simply lost all of his hope. Alex thought that he hated her, and that was why he decided to kill himself; so he wouldn't have to look her in the face and get reminded of the child he no longer had.

She then decided that she wouldn't think of anything more than she had to. She thought of how fluffy the clouds were, and how the sky was an unbelievable blue. Her thoughts, however, kept going back to Ace, and she saw his body, dead and broken. She buried her head in her hands, and then tried to think of something else. All she could do was sing the song, over and over again until she lost the image in her head.

Hatter seemed to notice that Alex was suffering from relapse; knowing that she was probably thinking about her brother's death, and was replaying it over and over inside her mind. He wanted to go over to her, but he then realized that the lace around him would just make it worse. He whispered to Cat, who was currently lounging on Hatter's shoulders before he then made sure that he wasn't in Alex's sight; trying to not bring back the memories of her little brother's death.

Cat knew what the Hatter was playing at, and he knew that there was something connecting Alex and Hatter that was deeper than just the two of them being Alices. He carelessly floated over to Alex, pretending that he wasn't supposed to be doing this at the moment. Alex looked up from her knees as the Cheshire Cat rested on her shoulders, smiling at her. He looked at her for a moment, his yellow-green eyes glinting in the sunlight, before he then said, "Why so glum, hmm, Alex?"

"Cat, you wouldn't understand," Alex said, pushing him off of her shoulders. Her mother looked at the two of them, and she sighed. At least Alex had friends here instead of being completely lonely like she was. Linda felt cold inside, as she then watched as the trees rolled by below her. Why didn't they seem inviting to her like they did to Charles? Why didn't she want to throw herself off of this butterfly to her death? At least in the Land of Souls she wouldn't have to bear the death of her son and her husband.

For Alex, she had to be here for Alex; she kept on trying to tell herself, though all she could really feel was the empty part in her heart that her husband had gouged out before he jumped to his death with it in her hands. The part that Ace had stolen wasn't hurting as much as the one Charles left, but it still throbbed and caused her pain. Linda wondered why Alex wasn't filling the whole in her heart; she had loved Alex with all of her heart, but now, it seemed to her that she didn't have a whole heart.

It had pieces gouged out of it by her son and husband, and she wondered what she had ever done to deserve such a fate. Linda wished for her old life; she wished for a time when she didn't have to fear death, and yet, long for it at the same time. But, she had come to the reality that she would never be the same woman ever again.

Linda Spade then watched as Alex let a smile pierce through her sad mask as the Cat on her shoulder spoke to her.

"Alex, really, you should really be worrying about the fact that Dee and Dum are going to be stealing half of my lunch today!" Cat was saying to Alex, who then raised an eyebrow at him, but had a small smile on her face just the same.

"You mean that they will be eating their part of lunch, the part that you _wished _was the other half of your lunch," Alex said to him, and the Cat nodded at her vigorously, his eyeballs disappearing in his head before the actual head disappeared. He reappeared, his head by her other ear, as he smiled at Alex, casting a glance back to the Hatter, who also seemed to be a bit more at ease now that Alex wasn't acting so depressed.

"I need the food, Alex," Cat told her, and she allowed herself to give him an eye roll, before she then raised her eyebrows again at him. The Cat looked at the girl, expecting her to say something, which she then did.

"I don't think so, Cat, you're only a cat!" Alex replied, and then Cat flew off of her shoulder, mock hurt on his face as he then looked at her with a pout. She sighed, and then gave him a reproaching frown; as if to tell him that he wasn't about to get any food from her. She put her hands on her hips and then concluded, "You don't need the food."

Cat looked at Alex, his eyes narrowing slightly before he then turned to only a head, and said, "But I have an empty stomach!"

Alex allowed herself to give him a laugh as he then flew back up to her shoulder. She had to admit, he had won this battle. She wasn't about to go down without a feeble attempt to sway him from his apparent _needs, _though she knew that it wasn't possible. She was sure that the Cheshire Cat was the most stubborn being that she knew when it came to his meals. "You don't have a stomach; therefore I do not need to fill it."

"Alex, some saviour you are, you won't even feed a starving cat," Cat pouted at her, and she then reached into her bag and pulled out a strip of dried meat. She held it out for Cat, a 'there-you-go-you-baby' look on her face, which turned to a smile as she watched him snatch it happily up in his paws and eat it within a second. He floated away, happy for once, but Alex knew that he would soon come to her, asking for more food.

Instead of thinking of her little brother, she thought of arguments against Cat, and the Hatter smiled at her from his place out of her view. He didn't want to risk her seeing him in his lace; for it had been his fault that Ace had died. His magic had failed him when he needed it the most, and he had made a mistake too big to ever fix. Though, she now seemed like she was at least content as she sat, looking out into the bright sun, a smile teasing on the edge of her lips as she thought of more ideas to counter Cat's illogical logic.

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**Thanks to LilyMaeve for reviewing! Thanks for reading, and please review!**

**I AM SO SORRY! I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THIS STORY AND I SHOULD HAVE BEEN POSTING CHAPTERS BECAUSE IT'S ALREADY ALL WRITTEN! I AM SO SORRY! THE NEXT UPDATE WILL BE SO MUCH SOONER, I PROMISE!**


	13. Chapter 13

Hatter allowed a smile to take the worried frown that had been resting on his lips place, and then he looked up into the sky; looking for more birds. He felt drained for he had been using his magic for too long; especially yesterday when he had made himself and Alex fly as fast as they could to try to save Ace. He then tapped his hat with his hand, and the lace coiled up into it, and he lightly rested on Butterfly's back. The remainder of the lace wrapped around his hat, and dangled in his face so all the Hatter could really see was a bright green lace in his face as he looked around.

"So, Alex, how are you?" Hatter asked, as he sat down next to her. He could really use a cup of tea at the moment, though he knew that he couldn't get one now unless he wanted Butterfly to catch on fire. He shuddered at the thought of Butterfly killing him once they landed because he had a burn on his back.

Alex looked at him for a moment, and she then said, "Considerably better, but, still, I don't think I'm just ready to talk right now."

Hatter nodded at her and then he then sat down next to her, a smile on his face. He crossed his legs, and fiddled with his leather shoes, tying up the laces and then untying them again just to type them up. Alex watched him as he did this, an amused expression on her face as she did so. She wondered why the Hatter found this so amusing, but she was glad that he had stopped talking. She didn't mind his company, she enjoyed it a lot, it was just that she didn't really trust herself to use her voice without breaking out into tears.

She remembered the time yesterday, just after Ace had died. She had hugged him, and she clung to his shirt as she sobbed into his chest. He had hugged her back, she realized now, and she then felt incredibly embarrassed at this for some reason. It was like a heat of the moment things; the ones that people didn't think about when they were doing it, and then were embarrassed at the outcome as they looked back on it. She convinced herself that she only did it as a result of being drowned in her sorrow, though she couldn't stop herself from getting a little red in the face as Hatter brought his eyes from his shoes and to hers.

"Well, Alex, are you ready to talk now?" he asked, and she merely shook her head at him, not using her words to prove her point. Hatter nodded at her before he then said, "Then I will be quiet for some more time then. How I wish for some tea…"

Alex smiled at him and they spent the rest of the ride sitting together, in silence, though both of them enjoyed each other's company greatly. They didn't need to talk to know what they were thinking; they could just look at each other and tell. Hatter often gave her 'I'm sorry' glances, generally directed about Ace's death, and Alex would then give him 'It's not your fault' expressions back.

When they landed to sleep, Hatter just gave her a cup of tea, and then nodded before he went to watch. He spent his part of the night watching as Alex slept. She tossed and turned; and he knew that she was having a nightmare about her brother's death. Hatter wanted to shake her awake; he wanted to free her from her nightmares, but he didn't know if she would either be thankful to him, or if she would get angry. Alex needed her sleep as well; she didn't yet a full night's sleep yesterday.

Even though he knew this, he couldn't stand to watch as she was tortured by herself, and slowly walked over. "Alex," he whispered in to her ear, and she just merely turned over. Even though her eyes were closed, Hatter could see that her expression was exasperated; and desperate. He then shook her, lightly at first, and said her name a bit louder, "Alex."

She shot up, breathing heavily as she then looked around the camp, a hand clenching her heart. When she saw the Hatter, she then sighed, before she lay back down on the ground, and stared up into the stars. She waited until her heart stopped beating painfully fast before she spoke.

"Thanks for waking me, Hatter. The dream was so horrible… he… he…" tears welled up in her eyes, and the Hatter was uncertain of what to do next. He looked at Alex, as she then wiped the tears away, trying to not cry anymore, but failing as the tears rolled down her cheeks. She looked at him, before she then started rambling, "I'm sorry, this must be weird for you… I'm sorry…"

"Alex," Hatter said again before he then reached out, and carefully hugged her. She gripped his shirt, as she cried into his shoulder. He held onto her and then was lost inside another memory. Helen Diamond was holding him like before, but this time, she was talking to him in a low, comforting voice.

"_I'm sorry, Matthew, for what has happened to you," _Helen told him in the memory, and she then looked down at him, stroking his auburn hair from his face. Hatter almost felt her hand brushing across his face as he held onto Alex, though he knew that Helen was dead. _"Losing both of your parents is hard for such a young child, but do not worry, I will take good care of you. Matthew Heart."_

Hatter shook his head, and then looked down at Alex. She was still crying, and she seemed oblivious to his memories. He then realized that he had some wetness on his cheeks, and brought his hand up to touch the tears that were on his face. He brushed them aside with his hands as Alex then looked back up at him. "I'm sorry…"

"It is okay, Alex, it's hard to lose both your brother and father at the same time," Hatter told her, thinking it was the only thing he could possibly say to her without acting like a completely insensitive person. She only nodded at him before she then wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her dress. She gave a little yawn, and then she lay back down on the ground that she had claimed as her bed.

Hatter got up and sat on his watch place, looking at Alex, who didn't fall back asleep, but instead looked up at the sky. He could see the stars reflecting in her dark eyes, and he then turned his head to look up at them as well. He felt reassured that even if Wonderland changed completely; the sky would always stay the same.

Hatter had fallen asleep watching the stars, and before anybody else had noticed it, he was shaken awake by the very same yarn squirrel he had passed the red lace to send to the others. The brown bead eyes looked up at the Hatter disapprovingly, but the yarn squirrel then whispered something into Hatter's ear.

"Everybody up!" Hatter said, loudly, gently shaking Alex and her Mother awake before he went and then kicked Dee and Dum to get them up. Cat looked at the yarn squirrel that was resting on the Hatter's shoulders, like it was a snack, which made Alex give him a reproaching glare. Alex had only talked to the yarn squirrel for a couple minutes, but she still liked it very much. It waved hello at her, and she gave it a smile back.

"Why so urgent, Hat?" Dum asked as he then rubbed the spot on his legs where the Hatter had kicked him. The Hatter glared at him, and then absentmindedly shoved his teapot into his bag; even though there was still tea inside of it. He threw the cups over top of it, and then slung it over his shoulder, nearly knocking the yarn squirrel off of his shoulders.

The squirrel glared at the Hatter for a moment before he then said, "The Dark Queen knows where you are! The Dark Queen is coming! There are many Card Soldiers marching this way! They're coming to take you to the Land of Souls! Hurry, hurry!"

"I'm late! Heavens, I'm late!" The White Rabbit began to hop in circles, picking up his broken watch and checking the time. A couple screws fell from the watch, and then the Hatter carefully picked them up, and shoved them in his pants pockets before he looked at Alex. The White Rabbit then got up onto the Butterfly and chanted, "Late, late, late, late, late, late! Hurry, hurry! Late, late, late!"

Over the Rabbit's continuous calls of 'late' and 'hurry' the Hatter then said, "We must go now, come on."

"Alex," Linda hissed to her daughter, as they boarded Butterfly. Alex looked at her mother, though it was clear that she wasn't really paying any mind to her; instead she was looking at the ground as Butterfly flew higher into the sky. Linda looked at her daughter, and then sighed before she continued, "How can we trust this squirrel?"

"He's good, Ma, he's the one that lead Dee and Dum, Cat, and Butterfly here," Alex said, and Linda gave a little groan. So, this little thing of yellow yarn had brought the mad people to her daughter. Linda then concluded that this squirrel didn't have any brain to begin with; so it had already lost its head long ago. She looked at the yarn, which was jabbering continuously to the Hatter, ignoring the Rabbit's calls of 'late' again as he filled out the details.

"She's furious, Hatter, very furious, she wants that Alice, and she wants you all dead. Her crown had a dent in it too," the squirrel was saying to the Hatter, who merely nodded, and then waved Cat away for he had been creeping behind it, looking hungry.

"Hatter, I am hungry! You have made me miss my breakfast!" Cat glared at him as the Hatter turned his back to the Cheshire Cat, continuing to listen to the squirrel. Cat huffed at him, before he then carelessly floated over to Alex, who was currently rummaging through her bag. She had a jar of jam in one hand, and a piece of bread in the other. "Alex, Hatter won't let me eat the squirrel and I'm hungry…" he whined to her.

"When are you not hungry, Cat?" Alex said, and then she handed him the recently jammed piece of bread to him. "Here, eat your breakfast and save us all from your complaints."

"Why Alex, always you are so polite, hmm?" Cat said, and he then smiled at her, before he took the bread, only half of his body showing as he then ate it before he turned into merely a smile. He whisked away in the breeze that ruffled Alex's hair, before he then reappeared next to the Hatter. "What is the matter?"

"The Queen really is trying hard," Hatter mumbled as he then carried the yarn squirrel back to the ground with his lace. He then turned to Cat, before the animal then rested himself on his shoulders. The grin on the Cheshire Cat's face told Hatter that he felt like he was the one that belonged on his shoulders; not a mangy squirrel. Hatter subconsciously scratched his ears, a frown on his face. "We have to jump into the lake, when we fly over it."

"Hatter, you know what is in that lake, don't you?" Cat said, though he didn't press the matter. Cat then turned onto his back, and then looked down at the lake, which was drawing nearer and nearer. A smile appeared where Cat was, and he then said (as only a mouth) "You'll need a rope to lead you back onto Butterfly, which means, Hatter, you can't go."

Hatter grimaced at the fact that he wouldn't be able to be with Alex when she swam to find the key. He knew that she was looking at him, but he didn't want to look at her; for the disappointment that he wouldn't be able to protect her during that time was still fresh on her face. He nodded to Cat and then watched as Butterfly began to circle the lake.

"Alex, I cannot come with you when you jump into the lake, for I will be your life line," Hatter said as he then held out his lace; a sad smile on his face as he recalled the last person he had caused the death of because of his magic. Alex nodded and she then hugged him so she could whisper into his ear.

"I trust you, Hatter," she told him in this whisper as she then let go of him, and she then took the lace from his hand. She looked at the rest of the group, and said, especially looking at Dee and Dum, both of whom reminded her so much of Ace, "I'm going alone, I don't want anybody else to get hurt or…"

Alex couldn't say the last word, but everybody understood what she was saying. They knew that Alex still blamed herself for Ace's death, and they knew that she would blame herself for their deaths if they died too. Butterfly huffed; it wasn't like he could come with them. Cat, however, looked at Alex (seeing as he was only eyes) before his face was totally shown; clearly irritated with Alex.

"I'm going with you," Cat told her, and she was about to protest when he then appeared on her shoulders, a grin on his face. He knew that Alex would probably start off by saying that he was a cat, and as cats are, he would hate the water. The Cheshire Cat wasn't an average cat; seeing as cats couldn't smile or magically turn into nothingness. He knew that since the Hatter couldn't come with him, then he would like the fact that Cat was coming with her instead.

Hatter trusted the mischievous cat with his life; for the Cat had once saved his life before. Like Alex had been lead to him by the Cheshire Cat, Hatter was lead to the March Hare's and the Dormouse's tea party by the smiling, flying cat. There he was left with the March Hare and the Dormouse until the Card Soldiers had found them; Hatter had hidden in the woods when they came. He had then had to drink his tea in loneliness for the past twenty years.

But now, Hatter had somebody to drink his tea with, and he wasn't about to let them get killed. He nodded at Cat, before he handed Alex and the Cheshire Cat a piece of sea-blue lace. To Alex's amazement, the Cat swallowed it immediately and then looked at Alex, as if he was expecting her to do the same.

"What do I do?" Alex said, holding the lace, and then Cat sighed, as if he was to say that he had already showed her what she was to do. Alex looked at him for a moment, and then her eyes widened, "I'm supposed to eat it? But- it's lace!"

"Alex, you have to if you want to breathe. It lasts for four hours," Hatter said, and then Alex sighed before she looked at the lace. It didn't seem very appealing, but she guessed she had to. She was about to put it in her mouth but Dee and Dum cut her off.

"We're coming with you!" Both of the Twiddles said in unison, and Alex turned to look at them. She didn't want them to come; they reminded her of Ace; and it was a stupid thing to want to keep a person alive for, but she wanted them to be here. Alex shook her head, and then they frowned at her before Dee continued, "We're not letting you go alone!"

"I'm not alone! I have Cat!" Alex pointed out, and the Cheshire Cat turned into a mocking grin over Alex's heads. Both of the boys looked slightly put down; but they didn't bother to argue since they knew that Alex would win. She was about to put it into her mouth again before her mother grabbed her arm. The Hatter was about to glare at Linda Spade for a moment, but the woman had a pleading look to her eyes.

"Alex, let me come with you," Linda said, and then Alex looked at her mother for a moment, about to deny her of the opportunity to come with her, but Linda had already gotten a piece of lace from the Hatter and she had eaten it. Alex cast a glare at the Hatter, but her mother then said, "I'm your mother, Alex, you are not about to throw yourself off of a butterfly into a lake that has who knows what kind of monsters in it with a cat, but not with me."

"Ma…" She started, but the Butterfly cut her off.

"We're going to hit the lake if you don't jump soon," he said, in his low drawling voice.

Alex then shoved the lace in her mouth, thinking it would be difficult to swallow, but instead of getting caught in her throat; it melted as it touched her tongue. The air that Alex was breathing now made her feel uncomfortable as it came down into her lungs; it seemed to dry, and it was making her light-headed as she breathed it in. It wasn't as if she was going to die; the air supplied her with enough oxygen to live. It was more like a kind of food that one didn't like; they would eat it if they had to, but if they had something else to eat then they would take it.

Water was the kind of oxygen supply that Alex wanted now, and the dark waters of the lake below her suddenly seemed very welcoming. She wanted to jump off right away so she wouldn't have to breathe this air anymore, but she waited until the Hatter had made sure the lace was tight around her body before he then waved them off.

"Come back, please. Pull the lace when you want me to let you go up." Hatter whispered to her before she nodded and then jumped. She didn't move as fast through the air as she fell, and she could tell that the Hatter was slowing them down so the landing wouldn't be that harsh. She looked over at Cat, who didn't have a lifeline because he could fly if he wanted to, and because he could disappear from any danger.

The air was cold as it whistled through her hair, and lifted her dress, causing it to ruffle and fight against the wind. She didn't even think that the Twiddles and Hatter could see her underwear, but even if she thought about it, she couldn't stop it from happening. Even though the Hatter had slowed them down considerably, they were still falling too fast for her to be able to hold it down enough so they couldn't see. It wasn't as if they were looking anyways.

Alex hit the water, and it didn't hurt her like she half expected it to. The cold water surrounded her, and Alex instinctively held her breath as she sank deeper into the dark lake. Her eyes were closed, and her lungs were threatening to burst when she tried her first breath. She took it in before she opened her eyes; fearing that if she opened them before she realized that she could actually breathe and she saw how close or far to the surface she was; she would try to swim up when she really wanted to swim down.

The breath of the water, which was cold like the air on a winter's day, and it was refreshing. It was like a warm bath after being completely dirty for a couple of days. Alex then realized that this was the first time she had bathed in a while; and she wondered how the Hatter had stood with her smelling so awful.

Now that she was thinking about it; nobody had bathed in her group for the longest time, but they didn't smell bad. The Hatter hadn't smelt that bad when he had hugged her and she had hugged him. He had a homely sort of smell to him; much like tea (probably since he drank it often) and he never truly smelt like he was dirty. He hadn't looked like he was dirty; though Alex didn't want to see how dirty she looked.

She shook her head; she couldn't be thinking about how dirty or clean she was at the moment. She felt the lace grown tighter around her waist the deeper she went, though she just knew that it was the Hatter being careful as he let her down. Alex looked around for any sign of a key, and then thought that it would be impossible to find anything down here.

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**Thanks to K9olaquia, RollingBeatle, and Tigerlily for reviewing!**

**Sorry for such a late update (again) I've just been forgetting about this story.**


	14. Chapter 14

The water was murky, and Alex still hadn't hit the bottom. She looked overhead and then noticed that the sun seemed to be having a hard time getting through the water to light her way. Alex looked at the darkness beneath her, and then she gave a little shiver; she didn't know what was there, and she didn't want to know. She kept on swimming down into the unknown depths, because she had to get the key so she could avenge Ace's death.

She saw something lurk around her, and she let herself scream for a moment, before she realized that it was only Cat. Her scream sent out a jet of bubbles that the Cheshire Cat then played around in for a while before he disappeared again. Alex then saw her mother, who was swimming downwards like Alex had been before, and Linda noticed her daughter looking at her. Linda nodded at Alex, and Alex nodded back before she swam over to her mother.

Alex wanted to talk to somebody, but she didn't know if she could actually use her voice underwater. She didn't want to drown, though, and she didn't risk anything. She knew that Cat understood how to do things; so if he decided to talk to her, then Alex would talk back because she knew it was safe. Instead of being conversational, Alex instead just swam close to her mother until they had reached the bottom.

Alex could hardly see what she was doing when she was walking along the bottom of Jack Lake; all she knew was that every step she took, a small cloud of dust would come up from the lake floor. It was almost entertaining to Alex as she did this, looking back over her shoulder and seeing the clouds of muck she had lifted off of the ground with merely a step of her foot.

She let a little giggle escape her lips, but she then looked on the floor for anything that shone in the little sunlight that had made its way down through Jack Lake. She saw nothing but rocks, and the occasional small clam. Alex sighed as she looked at the bottom of the lake; it had seemed so much smaller when she was on Butterfly then it had seemed now.

She thought that they were going to stay there forever; and she was starting to regret not letting Dee and Dum come with her. More people would make it go by faster; at least she hoped it would. But it seemed that a Cheshire Cat, her mother and Alex weren't good enough to find the key within the first hour of searching; nor the second hour.

Alex gave an exasperated sigh in the water; she was starting to feel water logged; her feet getting heavier with each step she took. She brought her hand up to her hair, and then gave it a little pull to keep herself from falling asleep; she was extremely tired from walking underwater. It took a lot of effort for her to do this; since she had to try to stay on the bottom instead of floating up like her body wanted to be.

The water that Alex was breathing didn't seem as good as it used to be for her. It was starting to feel like water should feel, wet. It felt like she was drinking instead of breathing. She then knew that their time was coming to a close, and she couldn't help but feel like she hadn't gotten anywhere. Instead, she felt like she went nowhere, and all of her efforts were in vain. She shook her head; she didn't want to bring herself lower then she already was. She was on the bottom of a lake, anyways.

"Alex," Cat's voice was bubbly, and it was very hard to make out, but Alex looked at her friend as he then swam over to her. She let him rest on her shoulder as she took another step, sighing as she did so. "The lace is running out. I shall go to Hatter and get more. Keep on looking for the key; it's down here, the Alice Map never lies."

Alex nodded, not wanting to talk since she knew that her sea-blue lace was running out of its power. She then looked at her mother, who cocked her head confused before Alex then swam over to her. "Cat's getting some more lace; ours are running out of power. Otherwise we'll drown."

Linda gave her daughter a quick shake of the head before she then continued to search. Sometimes, Alex thought that her mother was more determined to finish this quest then she was. Alex smiled to herself, but she then tried not to breathe as much as she was before; so she could feel like the lace would work longer than it would if she was breathing normally.

As they walked, weeds grew up around them; making it harder to see the floor, though Alex wasn't discouraged, she was only annoyed. It seemed as though Wonderland didn't even want her to save it, putting up all of these obstacles for her to get around. But Alex wanted to save Wonderland and she wasn't going to let a bunch of weeds, water, and the fact that she might drown get in her way.

The weeds thinned, and she then saw that she was, instead of being in a forest of weeds, in a field of giant clams. They weren't like the clams she had almost stepped on before; they were about the size of a horse each; and they were all opened, as if they were waiting for something to swim into their jaws. The sunlight danced across the floor, and something inside of one of the clams glinted at them.

Alex swam over to it, and then saw the tiny key nestled into the clam's fleshy tongue. Alex didn't want to reach in; it seemed as though the clam would snap shut on her arm if she did so. She gestured for her mother to get over to her. Linda swam to Alex, and then saw the key. Her eyes widened as she then looked at Alex. "We have to get it."

"But how? We should wait for Cat to come; he could go in and get it," Alex said, looking over at the clam's dangerous jaws. He could easily get it and then disappear out of the clam's jaws. But just at that moment, the water Alex gulped was suddenly like water instead of air to her, and she knew that she couldn't breathe much longer underwater. "Ma… We have to go; we could get back down here later…"

Alex's lungs felt heavy as she took another breath; the water was like the air she had been breathing after she had eaten the lace, instead this time it was wetter than usual, not drier. She knew that she couldn't last much longer, and she felt a bit lightheaded as she took in rapid breaths, trying to get the oxygen to her lungs and into her system. She felt the urge to kick up into the air, but she couldn't just leave her mother down here.

Linda Spade knew that her daughter wasn't going to last longer; it seemed as though the lace had a different effect on her, probably because she was an Alice and her own magic was making it wear thin. Linda looked at the key that was in the clam; she had to get it, she needed to get it. For Alex, for Ace, for her husband; she would get the key for Wonderland as well.

She moved faster than Alex knew that her mother could move, and she snatched the key out of the clam's mouth before she swam back. But before she could make it through, the clam's jaws snapped on her shoulder, so only one of her arms was out of it. Red clouded through the water as Linda gasped. Slowly, she transferred the key to her other hand, and held it out for Alex.

"Take it, Alex… Take it…" she gasped as Alex quickly swam over to her, shock on her face. Alex tried to staunch the blood, but the clam had gotten hold of Linda, and it wasn't about to let her go. Linda shook her free arm again, "Take the key, Alex… please…"

"Ma, I'll get you out of there," Alex said, though the tears couldn't be shown underwater, they were already falling down her face as the red seeped up higher, almost surrounding the clam. Alex took the key from her mother's hand, and then tried to get her free. Cat appeared next to Alex, a troubled looked on his face as he saw Linda. Alex looked at Cat for a moment and then said pleadingly, "Help me, please… help me!"

"The blood will attract other fish, Alex, they will rip us apart. We must go now that we have the key," Cat said solemnly, and Alex still protested, trying her hardest to get her mother out. It was difficult to pull her underwater, for Alex kept on flying backwards as she did so, though she wasn't about to give up. She pulled harder, more invisible tears falling from her eyes as she tried to breathe in the water. She couldn't really do it, and black spots littered her vision.

"Alex… Go…" Linda said, and then she reached over with her good hand and tugged the lace that was wrapped around Alex's waist as hard as she could muster. Alex felt herself get ripped up and she screamed as she did this; trying her hardest to fight back to get to her mother. Cat disappeared as Linda watched her daughter go; her arms flailing, trying to get back to her mother. Linda sighed, and then a bunch of fish swam over to her; sharp teeth exposed.

She slipped into the clam shell; which shut out the fish, meaning she wouldn't get ripped to death, and then allowed herself to drown inside the clam. Linda's last thoughts were ones of joy, and regret. She wished she could be there with her daughter when she saved Wonderland, and she was happy that she had helped her daughter. As she took one breath into the water; she felt her world get disconnected, and she then saw a white light in front of her. Her legs no longer seemed so wary, and she ran to it; to the Land of Souls.

"Let me go!" Alex screamed in protest as the Hatter held her back. Tears were streaming down her face. The auburn haired man had already taken the key from Alex, meaning she couldn't throw it back into the water as an excuse to try to save her mother. Hatter was holding her back, as she screamed, kicked, and fought his hold. She then fell limp, and turned into his hold, sobbing into his shirt.

Hatter let his lace slowly unwrap itself around her body, and he then hugged her into his chest, resting her head on his shoulder as Dee and Dum stood sadly by. They felt helpless as they watched their hope cry in the arms of the Hatter, whose face then blanked out for a couple of seconds. Both Dee and Dum watched as he stuttered, and then they watched as Alex was then the one supporting the Mad Hatter as he blacked out.

"Hatter! Hatter! Don't die! What's happening to you? Please! I can't lose you too!" Alex cried as she shook him, tears still running down her face. Her brown eyes looked like they couldn't take much more, and she then looked at Dee and Dum, desperation filling her face as she did so. "Help me; please… what's wrong with him? I-I… why? Why do bad things happen to everyone I'm near? Why?" She hung her head and then cried harder over the Hatter.

Dee went over and gently took the Hatter from Alex's arm while his brother then hugged Alex. She cried until she could no longer cry, and she was only hiccupping in Dum's arms. The boy held her close, rubbing her back as she sobbed, and then gently putting her down when she fell asleep from her tiredness. He stood up as Dee then looked at the Hatter.

"He's remembering," Dum said simply as he looked down at the Hatter, a sad smile on his face as he looked at the two Alices. "He'll finally remember us fully."

"Still," Dee broke off, looking at Alex, and he then sighed, "This shouldn't have had to happen for him to remember. I guess we don't get to choose how our future will play out… I wish we could."

"Nothing ever goes as planned nowadays," Butterfly said as he then took up higher in the sky.

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**Thanks to Lily Maeve for reviewing! Thanks for reading and please review!**


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